Today I learned about the loss of a good friend Parmjit Singh. We’d always meet on the Bike ride, including his family who are also wonderful and active participants.
Some of you know that I’ve been doing the SACA cycle ride from Birmingham to London since 1989. Its been like family and last year I was away from being part of the team that organises it due a number of personal commitments and rest…

As a reminder, SACA took over the ride from BOSS in ’85 – meaning that it has been going for over 30 years. In 2015 the team raised over £70K for the chosen charity, much needed money for Queen Elizabeth’s Children’s ward radiography equipment.

Earlier this evening I wrote a short piece to consider what we always ask ourselves when we lose someone, whereas we should ask this question every day. What is the purpose of life? I recognise that it is an honour to be alive and being ungrateful is easy. We look for evidence of God yet he pervades in everything we interact with. So why is it that we spend our lives hunting and striving or as Bob Marley would put it, ‘fighting on arrival, fighting for survival’. The answer is in front of us. As humans we have ego, it shapes us in the form of deflating others by simply inflating ourselves. The route to winning is sold as proving you are better than the person next to you. I’m not suggesting that competition is not healthy after all it is at the root of capitalism and drives our economies. What is missing is both co-operation and co-existence. We’re unable to see the suffering of others as it is too difficult to look below as we attempt to climb the mountain of our success. We want to rush up the mountain before anyone else, little do we know that when we have reached a goal, we will only have limited time and air to breath at that altitude.

So lots of philosophical thought that will only last for a short period before returning to the organ grinder. Who is the dancing monkey now?

There is such a thing a hope. If we all shout at the same time we can make a change. Standing together makes us stronger. If you’re too busy to attend a protest, write a letter or post your thoughts online.
If we think it is wrong for people to wash-up dead on the beaches of Turkey then we should not leave it to the politicians to fix or fish for solutions. We need to consider that we are more intelligent than those with power. How many times have you seen a minister with no experience or background of a particular department. Instead he/she will rely on civil servants. Maybe I need to further develop the idea of solverr.org , a way to crowd source solutions.

My immediate worry is how today’s politics is moving us to the right, extreme thoughts around what is mine and not yours. Patriotic and archaic thoughts are unhelpful. Whose land is it anyway? None of us!
I heard today that in the past we’d laugh a comedians and take politicians seriously. Oh! How this has now reversed today!

We really don’t know how many miles we have left to complete our circuit but what we shouldn’t do is waste the time that we have left. Lets us consider that self-less service and even just thinking about others can motivate us to do the right thing… We can moan about inequality but only a few are prolific enough for their presentation to be given a stage we need to support them.

Here is the piece I wrote earlier this evening. now with an additional verse…Its entitled:

The Rider

And when the ride is over what do we remember?
Who remembers us & the love given
It is not for us to expect but to give selflessly

And when the ride is over all we have, meaning for those that gaze at the track of life, is a message to make the most of our rides ahead
And when the ride is over we know you will be free only to merge with the one as you did the right thing while you were being.

RIP Parmjit Singh

Categories: 2016, Poetry, Political comment