In the great days of the war between Athens and Sparta purposely precipitated by the Athenians who like all the Greeks were under the military thumb of the Spartans, it was generally agreed (and still is by scholars of the time) that the Athenians had the upper hand when it came to oratory. In fact…
The Possession Of Justice
The greatest possessions a human being may ever have are those for which we pay no money. They are not the only possessions worth having: it is good to have a safe and warm home, it is healthier and we live longer because of it; it is pleasurable to have the ability to move around…
It Is Interesting
I joined Linked-In to commune with the social networking business community and I have been interested to see how many posts are to do with the 7 things you should/should not do, the 10 most important things for your business, the 5 this and the 8 that. And I see that this way of thinking…
Package This
I remember just after the Gorbachev era, or maybe in the middle of it, Western good in their bright packages hit the shops of Russia and people bought the bright, polished goods and found, to their horror, the bread and the alcohol were not as tasty as their own, dully-wrapped traditional fare. They learned a…
Autumn
This morning is very bright and sunny, chilly to the skin and the leaves are all massed along the sides of the road and strewn across the fields. The grass is so wet it is more like paddling than walking but the sun was just at the right angle for me to catch the spider…
The Salvage Of Age
Many people seem to think wisdom is something that comes out of the Bible; they even call it wisdom literature. It is something that comes with old age because living gives experience. We associate in our myths wisdom and advanced age with all those long white beards (and yes in our myths it is often…
The Stars And Me
It was one of the immense ideas of science and the phrase of Carl Sagan’s that rang down the TV and will ring down the centuries, that we are made of star dust. The stars are a vast resource of knowledge and wonder to our wonder-seduced brains. I was never one to have learned all…
Peace Through War
It is a common commentary on Europe that we now have peace because war became too violent even for us as the victims involved increased exponentially in the Twentieth Century. The reasons for war never changed in all the centuries: tribes moving to new places to live as their populations expanded, greed, to gain advantage…
The First Of All Loves
It strikes me to ask if Adam loved Eve. If Eve loved Adam.There are many, many jokes about the last two people on Earth and an assumption that the first two must somehow have been made for each other. And yes I know it is a myth, but the question still stands in the myth,…
Holidays
Wandering alone on beaches in Cornwall in the winter, and secluded beaches no one knows about in summer, I have always wondered what people who lie and sit on beaches squashed together until you can’t see much sand, get out of it. The old explanation given me by people is that if you don’t take…