Aspects of our lives as communities grow up around us from generation to generation and we cease to think of the essence of the things and accept what we are presented as the thing itself. Politics is not about voting not about constitutions, these things are the mechanics and the Laws we have grown around…
The Play’s The Thing
I tend to think that stage acting is real acting and film acting is not. The reasons for this are easily explained: on stage you have to hold an audience for two hours or more in real time. It is all down to how convincing you are. On film performances are created on the cutting-room…
And Man Created Fire
There is a great yearning inside humanity for warmth. Warmth keeps us alive, makes us feel good and cures many aches and pains. Warmth is our emotional friend. And a certain amount of artificial warmth is always beneficial whether it be a log fire or a warm hot water bottle to warm your feet. But…
Gender Remix
My sister left home when I was nine and I inherited all her children’s annuals and was shown a world of fashion models, Christmas decorations and recipes. Which was rather bizarre as my boys annuals were a world of heroic cowboys, space rangers and fighter aircraft. So whilst I was trying to work out the…
Terror
The terror in Western history is associated with the time in the French Revolution when the guillotine was used to murder around a thousand people. But terror has a far longer and more unsavoury history in human society. It has been a determinate for change and one of the factors behind our need for Community….
Just Take The Pill
Our entire history has been one where we attempt to find answers for problems. It is our ability to answer problems that unifies all cultures and civilizations, though admittedly sometimes we can see the problems were not really problems as such in the first place (all those non-existent gods that needed appeasing). In answering problems…
The View
You know it well of course, you look over a house and one of the first things you look at is the view from the windows. It is deeply within us to look out, like our ancestors crossing vast stretches of tundra, we look not only to see what is around us but also simply…
Newspapers
When I was at school we used to get all the daily and Sunday newspapers delivered. There was a large room (very warm in winter time) with three huge tables in it and boys would casually go in during the day and read. This continued when I was at University where all the papers (expect…
Dr Doolittle
I was a reader, and still am a fan, of Hugh Lofting’s Dr Doolittle books. Apart from the sheer fun of using giant moths to fly to the moon and huge snails to cross the seabed, I just liked the idea of being able to talk to animals. It’s an idea that has followed me…
It Is Not Always In Our Hands
Positive thinking, which has been a buzz phrase for generations, isn’t just about being an optimist. Nor is it having a selection of random apothegms to quote to oneself and others when life begins to get you down. I just read a note from someone I know who’s wife has left him, children rarely talk…