Noel attended at Kings College between 1930 and 1931 and then went to Ruakura College, Hamilton where he completed a Diploma in Agriculture. He worked on farms for a few years around the Hamilton area.
When the pull of the city took hold and he returned to Auckland. He studied accountancy for Auckland University College and he worked and owned some milk bars which he later sold; he then worked at the State Advances Corporation, the government loan agency.
By now he had started dancing and began teaching ball room dancing, but found he needed regular income so he got a job at Inland Revenue while continuing to teach dance. In 1947 he completed his diploma for the National Association of Teachers of Dance.
First, let me say that I have been considering this topic for several years, probably since 2002. Therefore, I want to thank you for the opportunity to organize my thoughts a bit in order to present them, hopefully understandably.
Before time began, we are told, there existed one Eternal Being, perfect in every way and beyond the power of human thought to comprehend. He existed alone. But although alone, he was not lonely. For not only was he one, he was also in a mysterious and incomprehensible way three, three persons in one god, the glorious and blessed trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
God, being perfection, needed nothing beyond himself. But as an act of divine will, or love, he began the process of creation by which other things were called into existence. Vast multitudes of spiritual beings were created, including Lucifer who ended up banished from heaven, the abode of God, to a domain of his own, a place of torment called hell.
At this point, therefore the universe was divided into two parts, heaven and hell. But then God began further acts of creation. He created light, inhabited by the sun, moon and stars. He created a firmament or atmosphere, inhabited by the birds. He created great waters, inhabited by fish. He created dry land, inhabited by plants, animals and men.
Man was the last created being, and was made by God in his own likeness.
My personal take would be that as a divine being, I should continue this process of creation, within my means, as acts of divine will and love.
Creativity and Spirituality.
As a designer and an employee in the fashion industry, evolution looks a lot like what we see as creation. Products are developed and popped out into the world, the weakest being put on clearance, never to be made again, the strongest put on repeat order and developed further into new patterns and styles, a type of natural selection.
A selection of Kurt’s scarves.
My learning to weave last year has followed a similar process of evolution. The first piece I wove had uneven edges and the unmatched yarns shrunk at different rates, creating something that shouldn’t see the light of day. Continue reading Creativity and Spirituality→
I confess I am sometimes subject to flights of fancy. I had an episode a few days ago. I wondered what Jesus would think if he actually came back as some Christians believe he will some day. “Came back from where?” is a question that comes to mind. But never mind. It would be especially intriguing to hear his reactions to what he would find if he came back at this time of year. What would he think? Continue reading Christmas: A Holiday without Borders→
Sometimes the beginning of a sermon has an unlikely beginning. At the Living Wage Office where I work three mornings a week, in the break room there is a sign with a familiar look. It is red with a white crown at the top. Underneath it says “Keep Calm. Fill the dishwasher, not the sink.” It made me think about the original sign of which it is a parody, “Keep Calm and Carry On.” We see it everywhere these days affixed to signs, greeting cards, tea towels, coffee mugs, and the like. Over my morning tea I wondered where it came from and why. Continue reading Keep Calm and Carry On→
Making sense of the world is not easy. Psychologists explain that to do so it is necessary to organise incoming sensations into information that is meaningful. They think we do this by perceiving individual sensory stimuli as a meaningful whole. The brain creates a whole image from individual stimuli.
