Our friend and colleague Albus (Upsetting content)

All the compliments, heart-felt to Albus and his family and friends, but him first, tell me that:

There is no competition in compassion, courage, helpfulness, being a fellow friend and comrade to disabled and distressed people, or in any other wholesome human quality.

This is very important/ imperative.

Because I see so often in the voluntary sector, people playing dark games of manipulation and power, and unskillful ego.

I have sat on 9 governing bodies of disability and mental health charities in the last 32 years, and recently received an award for outstanding achievement in community work, from Voluntary Action, Leeds. I was moved deeply, to tears, in fact. Recognition is one thing but ego and power so losing the aims of compassion in any charity are another.

So, my response to this award is not to frame it and put it on the wall, as a spiritual friend, though not a Buddhist Tim said I should. ''That would be dark ego big headed Tim. I'm not going to throw it way, another extreme, for me; its OK on the shelf with my books and voluntary charity papers.'' That is the healthy middle path of compassion and wisdom. I resigned from 2 of those charities, as darkly manipulative were destroying the aims of the charity, which is both illegal and immoral.

I feel strongly Albus deserves such an award, given the sheer number of compliments and the depth of feeling, and gratitude many people express above.

Thus, I request SCOPE contact the nearest town to its office and Voluntary Action of that town to your head office, or the town that Albus lived in and get a certificate of outstanding achievement in community work, and nominate him for it, even after his death.

And when he is awarded the certificate, post the news on this forum, and tell his friends and family please.

I am going to nominate Terry Simpson for an award of the same title as I got. Terry for 40 years campaigned for better mental healthcare by government, for disabled and distressed peoples human right, as ii many groups local to Leeds and nationally, creating the biggest group for mental health in the UK: the UK Advocacy Network, which it was my pleasure to chair for 2 years.

The point is

real compassion and wisdom is humble, true, deeply kind, soothing of distress, and physical pains, inspiring the best in us all spiritually, and politically.

I feel deeply humbled and moved by the award, and am acutely aware that there are many who also deserve such an award, who deserve recognition of good and great works.

Kindness is king, and queen, is noble and should be fed by gratitude, and passing it on so as to increase, and make the world a better place.

Albus was deeply kind to me, Catherine21, and many others. Albus was a king of compassion, gentle, not macho, wise, nurturing, a friend to many, and could take the nurturing he gave out too, however easy or difficult so he was courageous too. And I'm sure he had a sense of humour and joy, if someone would care to tell us about that.