At last in England

In 1949 I was reunited with my father in England after an absence of six years. I did not speak a word of English and speaking German or Polish was not popular. After only four years past the end of WW2 it was very difficult for English people to embrace foreigners.
My first few weeks in a London school were very violent because I could not be understood and I was dressed in the clothes that my mother had purchased in Hamburg.
Lederhosen and boys stockings and suspenders seemed to fascinate other pupils and lead to my ridicule and eventually to physical violence.
Although my mother had taught me very well how to defend myself by scratching, spitting and kicking, the shear numbers of English pupils forced me into retreat and I had to resort to relying on the mercies of the schoolteachers.
After about three months of school I managed enough of the English language to get by from day to day without getting beaten up. I made my mother buy the same clothes as the other boys so that I did not appear different. My white face, blond hair and blue eyes did not seem very different to many of the other children.
The rest of my school life in London became blissfully uneventful. The Secondary school was called Saint Martin in the Fields situated in the heart of London next to Trafalgar Square. A very much protestant, Church of England school, very different from the Polish Catholic School that I attended on Saturdays and Sunday. Saturdays was all about Polish culture, language, History skills and Catholicism.
Sundays was Mass, Social gatherings and cultural performances of traditional dance and singing by youth groups.
Living in London was my opportunity to discover more about the anti-Semitism that I grew up with and when I discovered that Jesus was not a Christian but in fact a Jew, Oh boy was I surprised and that posed an enormous question for me, why did his followers completely modify the religion of Jesus?
Cosmopolitan London was a fantastic place with its open and free access to all the libraries and museums.  I took advantage of the libraries for a very practical reason; the junior section was always warm and provided refreshments such as Apples and sometimes sandwiches. My parents found it very difficult to prosper in London and we lived in very poor circumstances, hunger and warmth were great motivators to spend time in libraries.
I enjoyed H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. I also liked books about travel and Greek mythology and Homers poems were a source of joy. The kind lady librarian taught me how to use the encyclopedia. This was like the poor mans Internet but a most fascinating tool. Every dumb question would lead to a new discovery.  Every moment-spent reading was a joy, learning about the world and the many religions and philosophies that have been constructed by the many diverse cultures of this globe we live on.
When I was twelve I won a school prize for Religious Knowledge. The prize was a book, which detailed the travels of Marco Polo.
The result of reading the book was partly responsible for the modification of my own beliefs that were instilled in my mind by my parents and piers.



At my Confirmation at age twelve I asked my Priest why God invented so many religions.
His reaction was instant and I will remember it until I die,
He gestured to hit me and told me all I needed to know was that I was Polish and a Catholic.
I was confused, I lived in England, my father was German, mother Polish, both parents were employed by Jews who I learned to admire, most could speak either Polish or German  (or Yiddish which I could comprehend). The school I attended was Protestant but the pupils were of various ethnic backgrounds.
I met Hindus, Janes, Buddhists and Moslems and they were all friendly and nice. Which religion was best?
My desperation grew continually to understand the true concept of God.
I needed to understand other people’s definition of the meaning of God and find the truth about religion.
When a person is born in a particular country the cultural expectation is that the children should grow up to consider themselves as Patriotic citizens and assume the cultural traditions and beliefs of the parents.
I found myself at odds with this concept.
My Father had a very thick accent and when he met someone for the first time, without exception he would be asked, “Where do you come from” his reply was mischievous he would say “I come from my mother” Further questioning went “Yes but what were you born?” Dads reply, “I was born a baby” this always amused my young mind.
My father did not like to admit that he had been in the Wehrmacht.

A person cannot be born a Catholic or Moslem or Jew. This is something that is imposed by cultural surroundings, parents, piers and or coercion.
Religion should be a private matter and kept well separated from politics, nationality and patriotism.
The man I admire who had the right ideas was Thomas Jefferson.
If I could influence the UN, I would like to see that every citizen of this planet insisted as an imperative that all the worlds’ clergy were thoroughly educated in a broad range of subjects in secular universities to attain qualifications so as to be permitted to study theology.
Hopefully this would reduce such arguments about the method of construction and time scale taken to construct this universe. This broad education and understanding of science should allow the clergy to concentrate on teaching people what really unites us and allow all people of good faith to better understand each other.
Enthusiasm is not a qualification nor is sincerity or devoutness.

Fifty-five years later I am no nearer in my quest to understand what people mean when they declare that they believe in God. It should be a statement that everyone can understand.
I met a man many years ago when I was making a house call on a Sunday morning. His wife was getting ready to go to church and he was not. I asked facetiously “Don’t you believe in the kingdom of god?” He said he did but that the administration on earth appears to be hopelessly flawed.
By now, I have constructed my own definition of God and it has nothing to do with any single religion.

My God is the Universe and contained in this Universe is all of Gods Knowledge.
Throughout the existence of humankind, we have discovered amazing amounts of knowledge about planet earth and about the cosmos. I believe the more we find out about the universe the closer we come to knowing God.
Religion gets in the way of this progress because each religion is jealous of other religions in case the monopoly swings in favour of someone else’s claim to the truth.
Ghandi said that human beings will never be able to grasp ultimate truth and must make do with relative truth.





I believe this but I see only benefit by seeking more and more knowledge to get closer to God.
This century is the most exciting to live in because of the speed in exchange of information. I predict we will witness humankind astounded by the power of collective knowledge.
I am not an atheist with a bible phobia and have no problem with seeing the value of our bible and the good intentions of the many authors of the collection of stories that help us to understand the human condition.
I see the bible as our guidebook to morality through the telling of mythology.

My experience of life has shown me that a person has three big things to overcome in life,
First, are the failings of ones parents.
Second, the failings of the education system.
Third, the cultural beliefs of the society one lives in.

The crisis planet earth faces is the lack of multi language skills to communicate with people in other counties so that we can find common ground to agree.
For example, we know that the environmental crisis our Earth faces are due to too much human activity.
The solution is obvious! Reduce human activity!
How?
Instead of the annual increase in world population, which is pushing us towards nine billion, WE MUST reverse the trend.
How?

God has provided us with more than enough knowledge.

Religious conservatives do not know how to save face by reforming dogma, the result, contemporary knowledge is shunned.
Italy is a good example how to improve.
Catholic Italy has the lowest birth rate in Europe.
Ordinary people have found a way to accommodate traditional teaching by the church to allow their conscience to use birth control.
I wish I knew that when I was young!
Please consider carefully! Can you imagine people going back to the Stone Age, forgoing the benefits of electricity, oil, fertilizer, mass communication, globalization, (which reduces the need for war) or migration?
Let me be very clear “The good old days” never existed. The further we look at history the worse it seems!
The answer is a sustainable planet Earth! We need a population that this planet is not endangered by!

There is no such thing as ownership of land, no such thing as borders between countries, no such thing as nationality, no such thing as race, no such thing as religion.
All these concepts are cultural constructs by human beings and have no place in the kingdom of God.

Activities

Hobbies=Languages,Cycling,Caravaning,Computers and Weight training.

Languages.
I had the mixed blessing of being born in Poland to a German father and a Polish Mother this automatically gave me two languages. I like to keep these linguistic skills going for cultural reasons.

Cycling.
 I used to cycle everywhere in London when I was a Teenager. My bike was my freedom machine to explore London without cost.
Cycling is one of the reasons I moved to Woy Woy. It is very flat with many cycle ways provided by the GCC.

Computers.
In 1986 I bought myself a 486 sx with a modem. Many upgrades later now I can't live without my  two computers one in my office where the printer and scanner is and the second networked to the main lounge. Now with Skype and VOIP I can speak my relatives in Poland and friends in England, USA, Germany and Bahamas all for free.

Weight Training.
I try to go the Gym everyday I find it very good for my psychological well being more than a
physical fitness regime.