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Clouds of War and Moral Disintegration in April 2026 - but beauty and achievement is displayed too as Artemis II triumphantly returns to earth

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   Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon (1818/1824) Caspar David Friedrich   [Photo: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin] As the clouds of war and lawless horror mass over us tonight, I cannot feel, speak or write. I even find it difficult to listen to music or attend concerts, choked as I am with emotion at the spectacle of wounding, death and moral disintegration  of our time . All this happening even as men miraculously travel around the moon and return to earth.  Last night I sat up late and breathlessly watched the astounding Artemis II reentry with extreme emotional involvement, this to an artist rather than a scientist. A prodigious human achievement. The perfection and courage of it was quite beyond my scope of assessment, even my imagination.  I kept reflecting on the irony of the space capsule's name 'Integrity' , defined by Cambridge as ' the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles that you refuse to change' . A grand stateme...
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Easter in Poland

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  Easter in Poland One of the beautiful wooden formerly Orthodox (now Roman Catholic) churches in the remote Bieszczady region of  S-E Poland B elow is an extract from Chapter 16   Vistula – Of Dragons, Martyrs and Lovers    taken from the book     A Country in the Moon: Travels in Search of the Heart of Poland  by Michael Moran (London 2008)  In Poland I feel strongly surrounded by the atmosphere of religion particularly at Easter. During my first experience it was as though childhood religious feelings had burst upon me with renewed vigour.  The haunting feeling of Christ in his sepulchre lay heavy in the air. Easter is one of the greatest Roman Catholic festivals in Poland. In the Kazimierz Dolny parish church on that Good Friday rivulets of 'blood' ran to the floor from the body of Christ twisted in agony on the cross. His tomb was guarded by a pair of weary firemen in brass helmets holding silver axes. Three nuns were ferventl...
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Poland and Iran - Sarmatia and Sarmartism - a remarkable but largely forgotten historical connection

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Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929) Self-portrait 1914       The profound, historic, arguably fanciful relationship between Poland and Iran should be re-examined at this appalling time. I fully realize there can be no direct practical relevance to the present murderous brutality but the context in past time adds some substance to the present picture. There is a common, modern pejorative criticism of Sarmatism and its ideology. The anthropological truth or otherwise of the alleged Polish descent from an Iranian tribe does not alter the long-lasting influence of the  szlachta [1]   and their beliefs   on Poles and Poland. This war has put me mind of the once, now rarely referred to, predominant myth of Polish origins being Sarmatia and possibly Iran (known to Europeans as Persia). This elaborate and engaging history endured for hundreds of years. Most extraordinary and notable to my mind, was noted in Polish behavior during the various tragic and misg...
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