Hot water and School. And Barack Obama

Darn.

I was going to tell you about something really really interesting and now I forgot completely what.

Sigh.

Anyway, apart from that thing I forgot, I wanted to share a bright idea for saving water and keeping warm.

Last summer I wrote some thoughts about saving water, and after a few months went by I was encouraged by a friend on Facebook posting to say she had been putting some of these into practice, and her family had a big rebate on their water payments – about $150!

I am less keen on washing in cold water during the winter, especially first thing in the morning when I’m still all warm from my nice cosy bed.  But with all the winter rain and snow, we don’t need the water saving up for the garden.  Plus, running the hot tap while the water gets warm takes longer in winter, because the house and all the pipes are cold after the long night – just in passing, non-UK friends; you do realise that here in England we are on the same latitude as parts of Scandinavia?  That it gets dark by 4pm in winter here, and the sun doesn’t rise until 8am – we have   l o n g   cold nights in winter. 

So – dilemma!  I don’t want to wash in cold water.  I don’t want to waste water.  I have no use for the water running off while the hot comes through.  What to do?

Aha!  Idea!

In the evening, I can make a hot drink and fill my very well insulated hot water bottle, and save money on heating by reading books or using my laptop to go online or watch TV, sitting in bed.    Then in the morning, I can take my still-warm hot water bottle, and tip the water into the wash basin for my morning wash.  With a bit of forethought I can even use the same water to flush the loo (I am back to water-closeting for the winter too).

The water smells faintly rubbery when it’s first tipped into the basin, but the fragrance of my lovely organic handmade soap soon overcomes.

I am very pleased with this new plan.

On a completely different topic, I don’t understand why schools have to be so all-or-nothing about attendance.  Colleges and universities allow people to sign up for specific courses – why can’t schools?

Where I live, the tiny children usually start on a half-day, and are fine with that.  Then it all goes mad and they have to go all day and every day until they’re eighteen, not just attending all day long but filling up evenings and weekends with homework.  And usually they are sent home for the holidays with a pile of assignments to complete for the start of the new term.   

I think it would be great if school participation could be a pick’n’mix system.  Children could sign up to the classes they were interested in with the teachers they liked.  Priority might be given to the full-time students, but home-schoolers or part-time students could come along as much or as little as they wished.   I think many children might enjoy going to school just in the mornings and with no homework. I just can’t see what would be wrong with that.

This morning over breakfast, we were talking about falling asleep.  Since I’ve been studying Eckhart Tolle’s teaching, I’ve become much more aware of my internal thoughtscape, and my lucid dreaming has very much increased.  Last night I was snoring in my sleep, and I registered that inside my head, my consciousness shrunk back from the external world, snoring sounds different from when awake.  I knew I was asleep, knew I was aware of the snoring, but also knew I was withdrawn to some extent from the regular perceptions of my waking self.  How cool is that^

So at breakfast time we were chatting about this, and Hebe started talking about falling asleep – about it being like a computer shutting down.  She demonstrated what it feels like, like this:

Then we got onto talking about work deadlines, and working late while simultaneously falling asleep, experiencing that repeated shutting down.  Hebe said she usually just goes to bed and gets up earlier – then she remembered sometimes starting school essays at ten o’clock at night – necessitated by having just so much homework to do.

And it seems to me that this is a real failing of school education – there is a great deal of input and output, but almost no time at all for the reflection, the digestion of ideas, which results in really good quality work.  In my work as an adult, as a writer, I should say the bulk of it is done while I am to all appearances doing absolutely nothing – drifting, being, wondering, imagining, roaming the internet looking at pictures and films and reading articles, reading books, sitting by the fire or by te sea, walking in the woods, just thinking. 

Hebe pointed out that in school the main idea is that you regurgitate the data the teacher has just passed on.  Sure.  But what’s the point of that?  This is what we have reference books for!

All creative thought, ingenious imaginative original thought, needs time without pressure to wonder and reflect.

Changing the subject again - I loved Barack Obama's second term inauguration speech.  I've only read the transcript - it's here - but I'm going to look for a video of it to watch and listen to.