You can’t eat money. Can’t buy me love. Not everything has a Price Tag. Money doesn’t care for me. Neither does the “click-clack” when Vogue Williams closes the box of Fairy Non Bio. Except that Vogue who always has Theodore’s safety in mind sees it differently:

“I make lots of little sounds when I care for Theodore. But there is one really important sound. That click-clack means that the Fairy Non Bio safety lid is shut. So Theodore is safe.”

I am so happy that Vogue always closes that lid. It’s so good to know that Theodore is safe and that we don’t have to worry about him. One person less to worry about. Brilliant. If you don’t do anything else, keep closing that lid for Theodore, Vogue.

Before Vogue explained to the world how much she cares for Theodore, the world only had heard about one other Theodore. 

Theodore Roosevelt.

He had one thing in common with Vogue: both of them said important things about caring. Roosevelt, like Vogue, has been credited with a great quote about caring:

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

In other words: knowledge is not worth a dime unless you care and you act upon that knowledge, use that knowledge to help others. Knowledge has to be applied to do good. For example, if you know there is a storm coming, you tell everybody to get prepared; if there is a virus, you wear a mask; if you loose an election, you concede; if someone needs help, you help and don’t wait for other to do their job.

Pádraig got some help this week standing and doing exercises. He is doing so much by himself. Just sometimes, equipment he uses needs to be adapted to suit his height. Like IKEA mats under his arms to take some of the weight that otherwise would be pulling his shoulders down.

After many hours of hard work, Pádraig eats more than most of us. He eats better and more regularly in any case. And he is eating food few if any people thought he’d ever get near to, such as nuts. Cashews are some of his favourites.

It gets sometimes lost in the busy-ness of the days: it is hard to believe how far Pádraig has come and how he has inspired people to get to the point where there is a rehab centre for people deemed by many not to deserve rehabilitation at all. Having the An Saol Neuro Rehab Day Centre up and running, working with motivated and experienced therapists and assistants supported by extraordinary equipment is little short of a miracle.

We know how much everybody in An Saol cares, and we care about how much they know.

Yesterday, I got a reminder of the futility of life (if that was necessary). A very good friend from my home town of Dortmund sent me a message about the passing of Fred Ape. He was about six years older than myself. His music was the music I grew up with. He wrote one of the songs that made Dortmund’s folk-rock group Cochise who lived very near to where I went to secondary school.

They were singing about justice, transparency, solidarity. One of their most famous songs, written by Fred, was “Smoke Signal” (“Rauchzeichen”).

The song is, they always explained, based on an ancient Cree Native Indian Prophecy.

“Only after the last tree has been cut down / Only after the last river has been poisoned / Only after the last fish has been caught / Then will you find that money cannot be eaten.”

How relevant this still is today is incredible. It made me think back some decades when it seemed perfectly possible that the good guys would be winning. When I felt carefree. Nothing really bad would ever happen to me. There was no end in sight. No rush. No need to deal with difficult people.

Rauchzeichen – Cochise

Wenn ihr den letzten Baum zerstört
Dem letzten Fluss die Klarheit nehmt
Den letzten Wilden habt bekehrt
Der letzte Vogel nicht mehr singt
Die letzte Straße angekommen
Der letzte Wald zum Parkplatz wird
Der letzte Krieg endlich gewonnen
Der letzte Strand mit Öl verschmiert

Werdet ihr erst dann einseh’n
Dass ihr euer schönes Geld
Auf der Bank nicht essen könnt –
Welch Menge ihr auch nennt?

Wenn ihr den letzten Fisch gefangen
Die letzte Erde aufgeteilt
Die letzte Bombe hochgegangen
Die letzten Ernten sind verseucht
Die letzte Mutter Kinder liebt
Der letzte Mensch durch Folter stirbt
Der letzte Gott den Segen gibt
Der letzte Hitler für sich wirbt

Werdet ihr erst dann einseh’n
Dass ihr euer schönes Geld
Auf der Bank nicht essen könnt –
Welch Menge ihr auch nennt?

Wenn das letzte Meer voll Abfall ist
Die letzte Erde ausgehöhlt
Der letzte Tanker langsam bricht
Das letzte Paradies zerstört
Die letzte Menschlichkeit besiegt
Das letzte Hochhaus hoch genug
Die letzte Lüge Beifall bringt
Die letzte Blume fault im Wind

Werdet ihr erst dann einseh’n
Dass ihr euer schönes Geld
Auf der Bank nicht essen könnt –
Welch Menge ihr auch nennt?

Werdet ihr erst dann einseh’n
Dass ihr euer schönes Geld
Auf der Bank nicht essen könnt –
Welch Menge ihr auch nennt?

Ape, Beck & Brinkmann
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