Of course we can always say that if you want to write part and parcel of being successful is to be well known. I knew that when I began to write when I was 21. It isn’t so much what one does, as how one handles oneself in the event of success. And we all…
John Donne
THE FLEA. MARK but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deniest me is ; It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be. Thou know’st that this cannot be said A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ; Yet this enjoys…
John Wilmot
Return Absent from thee, I languish still; Then ask me not, When I return? The straying fool ’twill plainly kill To wish all day, all night to mourn. Dear, from thine arms then let me fly, That my fantastic mind may prove The torments it deserves to try, That tears my fix’d heart from my…
The Smallest things
Some people can take immense pleasure from the smallest things. My mother is one such. No matter how hard the day or how great life’s problems, even when she was homeless, seeing a butterfly or the first ladybird so she could make a wish, brings a smile to her face. I always think of such…
Meeting Deadlines
I was surprised today to hear someone tell me they thought money was a brilliant system. I have been so used to damning it, it never occurred to me others would view it as anything but an imprisonment of the mind. Her argument was that if this week you sold a load of cabbages and…
The Fear in Their Eyes
I have just watched a short film about Islam rising. I have never been one to follow crowds and have little interest in scaremongering but the obvious conclusion one draws is that nothing has changed. When Cicero was spouting off about the Carthaginian and finished every speech no matter what it was, about finishing them…
Praise Where Praise IsTrue
It is a wonderful attribute of ours that we can congratulate and commend something made by someone else in which we find no personal gain whatsoever either in standing or finances. All too often we find it easy to degrade the creations of others, or even to see them destroyed without a second’s thought because…
Too Many Double Standards
Although the human mind can make billions of connections it appears from research that for the most part, our emotional responses are laid down by the time we are three and many of our attitudes are completed by the time we are ten. Attitudes that are very difficult to break down if we come to…
The NHS
It is a curious fact, that no one ever really discusses, with the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom that their philosophy, as espoused succinctly in Monetarism under Margaret Thatcher, and repeated by successive ministers, requires people to pay for the services they receive and if they do not have the money, to go without….
Remembrance
The finest way to remember the fallen of any and all conflicts is to work to make sure no more people die in wars. It isn’t always an easy thing to do and often no matter how hard you work, it doesn’t always work. Although the modern world has finally rid itself of kings and…