I see so much of human activity as an attempt to fill up the hours, days and weeks with anything that stops us thinking about how short life is, that sometimes I forget the simple joy of shared being. I heard a story on BBC Radio 4 which made me smile and I thought I…
Month: December 2010
Winter Wonderland
The snow which now has the village pretty well cut off continued yesterday and though the days temperatures are warmer it looks like it is here for Christmas. Which of course would normally be wonderful except for the fact that I have a cold – or at least I am fighting off some bug that…
Filing
I know there are things which define character very accurately, from those who are tidy in the home to those who are fusty; those who look after their appearance and those who don’t really care. There are many observations on the character traits in the human race and what types we all are. But having…
Lions And Lambs
I am surprised that people universally seem to think animals are stupid. I am sure this is to do with the fact that we have an immeasurable sense of our importance – we have created religions in which we are just off centre of most important beings in the Universe (we have to put god…
Farmer Fisher
In 1976 a wonderfully amusing and amazingly musical book was voted Children’s Book of the Year. The book is Farmer Fisher, a 48 page romp through the mind of Jonathon Coudrille who re-designed the famous Old MacDonald had a farm favourite, upgraded it to the modern era and delighted a generation of children. The book…
Reciprocal Behaviour
Humanity loves to create tools with which to carry out tasks assigned to us by nature or ourselves. In fact tool making is one of the definitions of what it is to be a a human being. And whilst it is obvious to see how tools help us to do what we want to be…
Real Myths
I know people try to categorize each other in many ways but the most common I hear is to say people are either dreamers or realists. A realist takes the world as it is, sees what cards they have to play, and play not minding how they use the chances and possibilities opened up to…
Real Anarchy
With all the student demonstrations in the UK and the worldwide unrest caused by a few bankers, I thought it would be useful to actually look at the term ‘anarchist’ for what it originally, and still does, mean. From what I recall of the political system in ancient Athens they had Archons, who were liked…
What Are We
When Albinoni was writing his music do you think he thought of himself as Baroque? Or was Michelangelo busy sculpting because he knew that was his part in the Renaissance? It would be amusing to tell Socrates he was living in Classical Greece. None of us know what our classifications will be in the future…
Night Lights
Driving at night brings its own challenges; from the obvious tiredness of some drivers who cannot keep in lane, to those who are blasé and go from one lane to another without signaling – though that happens in the daylight as well, to your own idiosyncrasies. Mine is not being able to see the road…