On Loneliness: The Scandal

'The level of the salt in your shaker decreases 

at the same excruciating rate, day after day.'

 (Zoë Heller, 2003, p. 99)

Reading Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller, I found one of the most visceral descriptions of loneliness I've heard since I accidentally received a phone call from an elderly man complaining of having been neglected for months.

'People [...] think that they know what it's like to be lonely. They cast their mind back to the time they broke up with a boyfriend [...o]r the week they spent in a Bavarian steel town. But about the drip drip of long-haul, no-end-in-sight solitude, they know nothing' (Heller, 2003, p.186-187).

As Heller describes:

'They don't know what it is to construct an entire weekend around a visit to the launderette. Or to sit in a darkened flat on Halloween night, because you can't bear to expose your bleak evening to a crowd of jeering trick-or-treaters. Or have the librarian smile pityingly ans say 'Goodness, you're a quick reader!' when you bring back seven books, read from cover to cover, a week after taking them out' (p.187).

Olivia Laing (2105) writes in The Guardian about a kind of loneliness we can see in Heller's book, which 'centres on the act of being seen. When a person is lonely, they long to be witnessed, accepted, desired, at the same time as becoming intensely wary of exposure.'

This, according to Laing (2015) can trigger 'hypervigilance for social threat' where the person 'becomes hyperalert to rejection, growing increasingly inclined to perceive social interactions as tinged with hostility or scorn. The result is a vicious circle of withdrawal, in which the lonely person becomes increasingly suspicious, intensifying their sense of isolation' (1bid).

This gives us an insight into viscous circle of loneliness and how with the constant decrease of self esteem, much like the salt in the salt shaker, which not only marks the slow passing of time but the ever decreasing feelings of perceived opportunities left for the lonely to have others sit at their table.

Disappointment: Pulling Back the Curtain

The closer someone is to you, the more you will feel disappointed by their inconsiderate behaviour. Your expectations are different of them compared to others. You expect more. And you are disappointed when they fail to meet those expectations.

It's not even in a 'quid pro quo' way, where you expect that the way you treat people that they should treat you and the better you do, the better they should. No, you reckon if they care they should try harder and that their lack of consideration is a measure of what they think of you. You are not worth turning up for, not worth being on time for, not worth committing to. 

Of course argument against this view will come from the closest relationships we have, where we end up taking each other for granted and 'don't sweat the small stuff'. But when the balance of the 'small stuff' either becomes so prevalent as to tip the scales, or the infrequency of meeting means the 'small stuff' is the 'only stuff',  then it matters.

Blake (1908) was right when he said:

'It is easier to forgive an Enemy than to forgive a Friend.'

You expect more from someone who you have a relationship with and are disappointed more when they don't seem to care. It is that pedestal you put them on. Or the Wizard of Oz effect. You expect and are promised one thing and behind the curtain you find instead, over and over again, disappointment. The naked truth is revealed every time in the beam of the spotlight. They don't care about disappointing you, because if they did they wouldn't.  But you keep turning up and pulling back the curtains. It's tiring but one day you might be surprised. 

Blake, W. (1908) Jerusalem, The Poetical Works, Oxford University Press

On Writing: The Deadly Art of Euphemism

Orwell, in 1945, speaks about the language of politics at a time when the second of two world wars is coming to an end. He contends that 'political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible', of such acts as 'British rule in India', 'Russian purges and deportations' and 'the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan' (1945, 2013, p.14). He argues that it is impossible to defend such indefensible acts without the use of euphemism (ibid). Little has changed in the intervening years, the indefensible still happens but the euphemism might have changed. Some examples Orwell discuses are:

• When defenceless village people are bombed by planes, driven out and their homes and livestock destroyed this is called 'pacification' (Ibid).
• When millions of deprived people are made homeless, without much more than what is on their backs and made to seek out help further afield, this is called 'transfer of population or rectification of frontiers' (Ibid).
• When people are put in prison for years without trial or shot or die in labour camps, this is called 'elimination of unreliable elements' (Ibid).

How many times have we heard euphemisms such as this since then? We've heard them for the wars, occupations, deportations, shootings, imprisonment and destruction of peoples' lives and livelihoods.

As Conor Lynch points out, the most infamous of these euphemisms is 'collateral damage' meaning in simple terms 'the killing of innocent civilians' (2016). Lynch reminds us of the  invasion of Iraq in 2003 (which we marched in protest against). This invasion was code named 'Operation Iraqi Freedom', a euphemism which sounded nothing like 'invading for oil or promoting market/ideological interest' resulting in civilian casualties of between '139,934 and 158,483' (Ibid).

As Orwell puts it:

'Political language […] is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind'

(Orwell, 1945, 2013, p. 20)

Lynch, C. (2016) Election 2016: 6 of the Most Meaningless Words that Politicians and Pundits Throw Around and Should be Banned [Online] Available at: http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/6-most-meaningless-words-politicians-and-pundits-throw-around-and-should-be-abandoned

Orwell, G. (1945, 2013) Politics and The English Language, Penguin Books

On Play: Learning from Fairytales

A Tiny Feast by Chris Adrian (2009) is a modern fairytale. My Goodreads review gives it five stars and explains:

'The juxtaposition of the fairy world with a cancer ward gives us a new viewpoint with which to see the world of science. Real life needs hopes and dreams without which we would not strive to overcome our trials. Sometimes it's better to be 'away with the fairies' than to engage with the sadness and hardship of human life and death. All this and so much more, presented with humour, warmth and a hospital environment we can believe in, wrapped in the guise of a short story.'

The story has many important messages which include the idea that children should play, and that sometimes fairytales and the like are ways people can use to process what is happening around them and make a kind of understanding of the impossibility of devastating situations. In the story we are told:

'A boy should play—that is his whole purpose.'  

In this instance it is illness which prevents the child from playing but in society we have created many other ways to prevent our children from playing and ways of curbing their playfullness. Whether we are dressing them beyond their years, schooling them with examinations or creating a society which has unrealistic expectations of them by giving a range of responsibilities while not always balancing the book with tending to their rights. We don't have to see the child-soldier or the child in forced labour or the child marriages or mutilation to see the child's right to play being eroded.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) agrees:

'That every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.

That member governments shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.'

Article 31

Today the National Union of Teachers (NUT), called for a ballot on boycotting primary school testing  (Coughlan,2016). There have been many boycotts since the SATs were introduced (reference) including  my family's. It was a simple method, whereby the head of the school informed us when the SATs were scheduled and we would keep our child away from school at those times. The head went as far as to tell us the specific times, so that our daughter was only absent for a few hours rather than missing a whole day. Our daughter left primary school 16 years ago but it seems, we are are having the same arguments. 

Arguments which Holt was having in 1976, when he makes a case for for doing, instead of education. The kind of education which Holt (1976) describes as 'learning cut off from active life and done under pressure of bribe or threat, greed and fear' (p.3). Whereas:

‘Play is freely chosen, personally directed, intrinsically motivated behaviour that actively engages the child. Play can be fun or serious. Through play children explore social, material and imaginary worlds and their relationship with them, elaborating all the while a flexible range of responses to the challenges they encounter. By playing, children learn and develop as individuals, and as members of the community.’ 

 Davy, A. (2006)

This is why I am a youthworker. To play, to encourage play, to remove barriers to choice of and in play and to build relationships and communities from the central tools of play, which include:

• freedom
• voluntary participation
• choice
• personal interest
• individual direction
• motivation
• engagement
• exploration
• social skills
• creativity
• flexibility
• challenge
• experiment
• learning
• development
• individuality
• cohesion

(List based on Davy, 2006, quote above)

So let's play.

Adrian, C. (2009) A Tiny Feast, The New Yorker, Issue April 20, 2009

Couglan, S. (2016) Teachers Union Calls for Ballot on Primary Test Boycott, BBC News  

Davy, A. (2006)  New Playwork: Play and Care for Children 4-16, Cengage Learning EMEA

Holt, J. (1976) Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better, Penguin Books Ltd, Middlesex

United Nations (1989) Convention on the Rights of the Child, UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner

The Middle Ground, The Common Ground

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Kay Joy Fowler (2013) teaches us much about kinship. Sometimes it means beginning in the middle, not just the middle of the story as Rose's story did but in the middle between what we know and what we don't know.

We make assumptions constantly and at the same time know those assumptions are not the whole story. So why not make assumptions that are positive. Ones that celebrate what we have in common so we can better understand each other rather than open up what sets us apart.

Fowler, speaking about We Are All Completely Beside Outselves, said she 'wanted the book to start with the assumption of kinship' , that she 'wanted the reader to assume the similarities, before looking for the differences' (Online Q&A).

A good place to start. A foundation to build from. A positive connection. The middle ground. The common ground.

More Lessons from Harper Lee

Author Harper Lee passed away on the 19th of this month and having read and been inspired by To Kill a Mockingbird, I turned to her other novel Go Set a Watchman to find some solace. I was aware there had been controversy around this novel, however I was interested in knowing where young Scout's story had originated. The book, a precursor of To Kill a Mockingbird has an older Scout trying to find her way in life and reminiscing about her childhood in an effort to make sense of her world.

My Goodreads review: 

Go Set A Watchman will be forever compared to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and at the moment, in the main, seems to be seen as coming up short. However if we talk about the message of the novel, rather than the plot or structure, we might see it as being the better of the two in the future. The message?

• Heroes are only as we perceive them.
• Consciences, like morals are malleable.
• Power corrupts, whether in terms of sexism, racism, class or any other oppressive force.
• We cannot understand what is right if we rely on other people to tell us.
• Concepts like 'right' , 'truth' and 'good' all change according to and need context to be understood
• Prejudice comes as much from faith and culture as it does from good intentions and ignorance.
• There are no 'good' or 'bad' people, only the good and bad they do.
• Children need to evolve past parents guidance and learn from themselves.
• We are all flawed.
• We are all bigots in some way.
• We are afraid of what we have being taken away from us.
• Our response to what scares us is fight or flight.
• We, as a species, are not as evolved as we think.
• And history does repeat itself – until we learn.

If, by  reading this book, any one of the above is understood, maybe we will not take for granted the benefits we have and try harder to be better people.

* * *

Go Set a Watchman was published in 2015 but much of its material pre-dates To Kill a Mockingbird (Telegraph, 2015). Although it was never published in the fifties (perhaps because of its inflammatory politics) it is as pertinent today because of those same politics and social commentary.

Comments on Need and Greed:

 'If you did not want much, there was plenty.' 


'The only thing I’m afraid of about this country is that its government will someday become so monstrous that the smallest person in it will be trampled underfoot, and then it wouldn’t be worth living in.'

Comments on Prejudice, Conscience and Faith:

' Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.'

'[E]very man’s watchman, is his conscience.'

'[T]he twenty-first chapter of Isaiah, verse six: For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.'

'As you grew up, when you were grown, totally unknown to yourself, you confused your father with God. You never saw him as a man with a man’s heart, and a man’s failings—I’ll grant you it may have been hard to see, he makes so few mistakes, but he makes ’em like all of us.'

Comments on Friendship and Love

'[T]he time your friends need you is when they’re wrong.... They don’t need you when they’re right.'

'[A]lmost in love... No, that’s impossible...either you are or you aren’t. Love’s the only thing in this world that is unequivocal. There are different kinds of love, certainly, but it’s a you-do or you-don’t proposition with them all.'

Lee, H. (2015) Go Set A Watchman, Heinemann 

The Big Short & The Cost of Unemployment

The Big Short told the story of the 2007/8 housing market collapse and banking irregularities and the subsequent economic collapse in an engaging way that meant I came out of the movie feeling entertained and educated.

The story is one we are somewhat familiar with and one we certainly know a lot more about by the end of the movie. However one thing mentioned, hit a chord for me. Among the banking and housing terms and the stories of cover ups and high finance greed, it was mentioned that in the US, every time unemployment increases by a percentage that 40,000 people die.

I checked. And yes, according to Thomas and Carson (2014)  this is, pretty much, as they put it:

'The Cost of Unemployment'

Thomas and Carson (2014) mention the costs 'in human terms' as eroding 'morale and self-esteem', destroying motivation and positive behaviour patterns and increasing negative social behaviour , 'morbidity, mental illness and crime' (p. 300).

Thomas and Carson discuss a study where a 'one-percent-point increase in the unemployment rate will be associated with 37,000 deaths' (Ibid).

These deaths include:

• 20,000 heart attacks
• 920 suicides
• 650 homicides

In the UK the Trade Union Congress (TUC,  2010) found the 'costs of unemployment' to include higher mortality (including infant and maternal), increased ill health (mental and physical), increased substance abuse and increased poverty related other issues.

The cost to children includes  all the fall out from the above, such as:

• 'by the age of 2, the children of long-term unemployed parents were up to an inch shorter than the children of other parents' (p.6)
• 'the death rate for children of parents classified as never having worked or long-term unemployed was 13 times that for children whose parents worked in higher managerial or professional occupations' (Ibid).

We could think of the 'big short' as that of the toddlers who are, because of other people's greed, shorter than their peers. At least they are not part of the real 'Big Short' - all those who are dead - the real cost of greed.

Thomas, W. L. and Carson, R. B. (2014) The American Economy: How it Works and How it Doesn't, Routledge
TUC (2010) The Costs of Unemployment, a TUC Briefing to Mark the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, 

Room

'Room' by Emma Donoghhue has had a great movie interpretation of the book, capturing the atmosphere, characters and situation of living for the first five years of a life locked up in a room. I cried through most of it and was riveted by the limited (but vast) world view of a five year old. It replicates the skewed perspectives which come from an unusual upbringing in a restricted environment.

This story is certainly a 'different kind of true' and the idea that 'everyone's got a different story' has special resonance.

My childhood story was certainly set on a stage larger than a room. It included rooms, houses, schools and playgrounds, fields and roads and cities and counties. But for all its horizons it was usually limited to the people in the vicinity and usually not much farther than a room. 

However big the house or however far I traveled, it was one room at a time and even when phoning home it was just from one room to another.  

In many places I've traveled I've seen a family live in a room, converting it at night to sleeping quarters by laying out bedding and clearing it away in the day to live. It has made me question my 'need' for so many rooms in my home, despite the modest size of our maisonette. 

My rooms:

1 room just to sleep in

1 room just to wash in

1 room just to toilet in

1 room just to cook in

1 room to lead me to the other rooms downstairs

1 room to lead me to the other rooms upstairs

1 room just to sit in

It seems ridiculous that many of our rooms are only used for a portion of the day and unused the rest. The nearest I've come to living in less wasteful accomodation is when I have lived in bedsits which convert from day to night and camping which is an all-in-one with communal toilets. 

And that is just our houses. What about our workplaces. Billions of rooms which are only used for a portion of the day, week and year while there are people sleeping in the streets calling a doorway their 'room'.

According to Crisis, last year 7581 people slept rough on the streets of London. And for every rough sleeper in London 100 people are in hostels and 1100 households are in overcrowded accomodation.

With all those empty rooms.

Bitterness can be a Snake

'For my own sake I must forgive you. 

One cannot always keep an adder in ones breast to feed on one

nor rise up every night to sow thorns in the garden of ones soul.'

 (Oscar Wilde cited by Hughes in Forgiveness in Victorian Literature: Grammar, Narrative, and Community, 2015, p149).

Bitterness will poison me slowly and destroy my soul, so forgiveness will save me according to Wilde. 

Hughes (2015) talks about the therapeutic value of forgiveness and likens resentment to a poison or toxin, citing Anne Lamott's suggestion that: 'not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die' (p.134 cited in p.149, 2015).

What Would You Do With an Angel?

 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings' written by Gabriel García Márquez tells the story of the reactions of a poor family and community to the finding of a bedraggled angel at the bottom of the garden. What would you do?

The people he met, including a family, clergy man, doctor, mob, pilgrims and a woman who believed in folklore, interacted with him in many ways, ranging from the ridiculous to the understandable and all consistent with the magic-realist genre.

Imagine if you found an angel...

Would you...

tell someone

stare at him with surprise

stare at him so long he become familiar

speak to him

assume he is an angel

hold him captive

club him to death

put him on a raft with food for 3 days

lock him in a chicken coop

make fun of him

find entertainment and throw food to him as if he is in a zoo or circus

make him mayor of the world

make him high ranking military to win wars

cross breed him with humans to make wise rulers of the universe

check to see if he speaks Latin

consider him an impostor because he does not speak Latin or show deference to clergy

conclude that he is not an angel if he is not perfect in actions and appearance

call him the devil because he does not live up to expectations of what an angel should be

describe wings as as little a prerequisite for being an angel as the difference between a bird & plane

check with higher orders in the church for advice

mob the place where the angel resides to see it

fence off the area of the miracle and charge entry

seek a miraculous healing from the angel

burn candles in his honour

make him eat mothballs – folklore angel-food

provide him with a feast offered up in penance

give him sustaining plain and easy to eat food

let the chickens groom his wings for parasites

allow people to take feathers to restore their ailing and failing bodies

throw stones at him to make him move and stand

burn him with a branding iron to rouse him

examine him for a belly button

check if he speaks Aramaic

wonder how many of him could fit on the head of a pin

discover if he was just a human mutation from Norway

lose interest in him when someone new comes along who you can empathise with or understand

move on to the next news-cycle because he is not meeting your imaginary needs

let his extra-ordinariness become so ordinary he is no longer considered a concern

examine his biology logically and see how he could be considered normal rather than humans

take him so much for granted eventually that he became like the house pet being shoed from here to there as a nuisance

cover him in a blanket and let him sleep in the shed like an old dog

get concerned by his demise because the disposal of angels bodies is out of your area of expertise

be relieved, as he finds health and energy again and recovers, relieved that this unexplainable entity is leaving your life, a question mark is gone.

miss the extraordinary when it is gone

Whether it is measuring him against certain criteria, judging him with a prejudiced eye or having expectations of him which are only within a limited area of experience and knowledge, an angel may not fare well in the real world. 

Our lives could benefit greatly from the angel but we, ourselves, might be the barriers to achieving those benefits with our very earthly and earthy views, prejudices and ignorance.

And even worse than that - we might miss out on the miraculousness of the extraordinary in our need to negotiate our surroundings and experiences into ones which are familiar.

 Spotting angels in the world isn't necessarily the hard bit – it's what to do with them next.

As Gabriel Garcia Marquez warns, if we are not careful we can, as the angel's captors did, look 'so long and so closely' at the miraculous that surprise can be over come and the extraordinary fades into the ordinariness and safety of the familiar.

Fraser (2014) from the Guardian considers that:

'magic-realism...employs the magical as a form of imaginative resistance to the harsh and totalising logic of imperial rationality. It seeks the freedom to think outside the box of established wisdom: that is, by rubbing away the line between the real and the fantastic, it frees the imagination from the constraints of how things are. It is revolutionary stuff.'

Viva la revolution !

Rooms with a View of Christmas

New Years Eve eve, on our way to our daughter's place by train we passed over the Geffrye Museum. I was reminded of when we visited when she was little and enjoying the seasonal decoration of the period rooms and wondered if I'd see them this Christmas. After our visit we were on our way with our daughter to find somewhere to eat and to my delight found ourselves passing by the Geffrye Museum and taking a trip down memory lane.

It was a lovely journey through 400 years of  Christmases traditions. From the simplicity of boughs of holly and ivy to the more modern Christmas fayre and decorations.

We all have our Christmas traditions, whether it is Midnight Mass, the Christmas Stocking, the Turkey or the Christmas Tree we are doing what we have done for hundreds of years - celebrating, sharing, feasting and with love spreading light, hope and joy. Does how we do it really matter?

In the ever commercialisation of Christmas it is lovely to be reminded of more simple times and what we really value most, like a family trip down memory lane at Christmas.

As told in Dickens' tale 'A Christmas Carol' we can get good from the festivities of Christmas wiithout seeking profit from them and at the same time it can cost us nothing. The simplest pleasures can be derived from the simplest of pastimes and things like love, good will and the joys of Christmas cost nothing to spread. As the song goes 'The best things in life are free'!

Scrooge's nephew tells him:

'There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say ...Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round - apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that - as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good.'

Ideas & the Energy to Carry them Out

We don't always get it right first time and can more often than not spend a lot of time at the trial and error stage. But the more we discover what doesn't work the nearer we are to finding out what does. 

The light bulb is one of those things which wasn't right first time. Edison, on his journey of discover was commiserated with by a colleague because of a lack of results (or at least the right one)  and replied 'I have gotten a lot of results! I know several thousand things that won’t work' (Dyer & Martin, 2010).

We all know several thousand things that don't work, from war to wooly pants but as long as we keep working on them (not the wooly pants - ther're a non-starter) we might finally get the result we want.

(Like the energy saving light bulb and climate talks that actually produce results.)

Dyer, FL. and Martin, TC. (1910) 'Edison: His Life and Inventions', Vol 2, Chapter 24: Edison’s Method in Inventing, p.616, Harper & Brothers, New York

Generosity: The Four Kinds of Giving

The Dalai Lama (2012) in his book 'Beyond Religion' talks of 'ethics for a whole world' and speaks of the following 'four kinds of giving' (p.130):

1. giving material goods
2. giving freedom from fear – providing safety, security and honesty
3. giving spiritual counsel – providing 'comfort, concern, and advice to support others' psychological and emotional well-being
4. giving love

The Dalai Lama has the following to say about generosity:

'It seems worthwhile to say a few words about the value of generosity. Generosity is the most natural outward expression of and inner attitude of compassion and loving-kindness. When one desires to alleviate the suffering of others and to promote their well-being, then generosity – in action, word and thought – is this desire put into practice. It is important to recognise that “generosity” here refers not just to giving in a material sense, but to a generosity of the heart.'

(Dalai Lama, 2012, p.129)

Let's be generous. Like a puppy, generosity is not just for Christmas !

On Writing: Sermons, Carols and The Choir Invisible

We strive to be better. To develop. To learn. To be 'that better self' as George Elliot would put it. Organised religion doesn't always get it right and when they get it wrong the distrust earned eats away at what is the base good. Love and generosity of spirit and a search for peace, justice and equality.

Having never been in St Paul's Cathedral in all my years living in London, this weekend I went to Morning Choral Matins to see it in use as it should be. The choir sounded as good as a choir should in the high roofed echoes of a cathedral with an organ as accompaniment and at times was so moving a sound that it resonated though your whole body flushing out negativity as it swept though like a spiritual colonic irrigation. Once you turned a deaf ear to the camera clicks, off-key congregation and the hissing from the speakers as the minister spoke, it was as perfect as any Morning Choral Matins. What made it, and came as a great surprise to me, was the sermon. It was relevant, political and not afraid to take a stance on war and peace and justice and equality, as well as slam the Daily Mail (for another one of those surveys of all the people who think something the Daily Mail want them to say they think). The experience was uplifting.

Standing in Canary Wharf carolling for 3 hours had a similarly positive effect. My calves stung, my back grew stiff and my arms burned as the bucket I held got heavier, but it got heavier. People were generous. The Salvation Army Band played. And I had the privilege of smiling and saying 'Thank you' to hundreds of people and in reply to my Christmas greetings was wished a 'Happy Christmas' by hundreds of smiling people in return.

 

George Elliot is one of those 'immortal dead' she writes of 'who live again in minds made better by their prescence' as a writer. How many other of the 'choir invisible' inform our choices, teach us right from wrong and how, not just to love but also how to show that love in generosity of spirit and doing good.

Perhaps when we search for immortality in our writing, humanity would be better served searching for it in the good we do. As George Elliot entreats,  'Oh may I join the choir invisible' :

O may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence; live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude,
In scorn of miserable aims that end with self,
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge men's minds
To vaster issues
......

May I reach

That purest heaven,—be to other souls

The cup of strength in some great agony,

Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love,

Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,

Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,

And in diffusion ever more intense!

So shall I join the choir invisible,

Whose music is the gladness of the world

Function and Tuning

Books do not need to be literary masterpieces to be insightful. Neither do they need to be an overall success. They can, like The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton have a relatively uninspiring but steady plotline and setting and flashes of perfection which set it apart from mediocrity. The following is one such flash of genius:

'She was the sort of person who needed to be kept happy, he realized. Not as a matter of selfish expectation, but as a simple fact of design; like a piano or a harp, she'd been made to function best at a certain tuning.'

Whether it spoke to me because I could associate with it or it spoke to me as the simple truth of the human condition, it spoke to me.

I am made to 'function best at a certain tuning' - aren't we all?

Loyalty & Love

'Our Man in Havana' is a comic look at international espionage and the role and unreliability of informants in state affairs and although it shows its age by some of its inappropriate racial references it is also ahead of its time in its predictions.

I left London for Havana, having read Our Man in Havana (1958) by Graham Greene, set in both London and Havana and planning to watch the Alex Guinness black and white version while there. We watched it noticing we had passed Sloppy Joes, one of the locations on the film and while we sat eating sloppy joes at the home of the original sloppy joe, on the TV appeared Our Man in Havana.

Today the messages still hold true, whether they are black and white on the page on on the screen:

'Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?'

Back to The Future Day

I watched Back to the Future in 1985 and imagined a future like Marty McFly's. We had remote control TV, the home computer game Pong, video machines, games arcades and the Walkman - we knew this was just the beginning. I joined the 'Computer Club' and was amazed that after a long, careful and patient amount of typing in green that I could programme a machine to respond with the word 'Hello'. I knew this was the beginning of the future.

Who knew, though how the future would loop round? Record players are back again playing 'vinyl'. We have 'vintage' clothes shops, 'old school' music and 'classics' and 'antiques'. Books are still here, despite video and audio alternatives. 

Doc in 1955 sees a hairdryer in a future suitcase contents and asks 'A hair dryer? Don't they have towels in the future?' And he is right. There are things we don't need replacement for or the solution to the problem is not what we expect or a new need is identified.

What did Back to the Future predict?

• Self drying coats? Coats with waterproof but breathable tech don't need to be - different solution.
• Self-tying laces? Design of footwear like using Velcro instead is a different solution.
• Big screens and video conferencing? We have it in PCs, flat screens, laptops and tablets
• Hand held communication device? What are mobile phones?
• We have holograms, glasses screens, thumb print recognition, dehydrated food, 3D, cosmetic surgery, drones and hands free video games. (see Gawker and The Independent)

So what if we don't have the hover board and electronic dog walkers, or flying cars...we have the Internet, medical science curing cancer and eco-friendly alternative power sources - not a bad trade.

As Marty says: 

"If you put your mind to it,

you can accomplish anything."

Now I can make my computer say so much more than just HELLO .

Martian Worships Duct Tape

'The Martian' by Andy Weir is a wonderful tale of survival against the odds. Although the odds were better for a botanist's be able to 'science the hell out of this' and survive being the only man left on Mars, it was still his spirit which kept him going through adversity. How would any of us survive on an alien planet when we are left for dead...depends on your science, I suppose, and possible how much duct tape you have available. As Mark Watney, 'the Martian', puts it 'Duct tape should be worshipped'. I understand this sentiment – and although I may not have a roll on me, I always have a few lengths wound round and old credit card in my first aid pack in my bag and Ive often been glad of it.

Advantages of duct tape:

• Tears without a scissors
• Tears in strips
• Strong
• Waterproof
• Easy to carry
• Adhesive

10 uses for duct tape

1. Patching up a tent or taping broken poles
2. Sticking bubble wrap and wrapping postage parcels to keep shape & secure
3. Use as grip for opening jars
4. Protect floor from furniture streaks by applying strip to under legs of furniture
5. Prevent wires and cords from becoming a trip hazard by fixing to ground
6. Temporary stopping of leak in plumbing
7. Patch for hole in shoe, waterproof coat or inflatables
8. Remove fluff from clothes or pet hairs from couch
9. Patch a bicycle inner tube
10. Use for emergency splints or bandages or keeping a blister plaster on when sweating

Ps. Forgot No 11. For kidnapping purposes in thriller movies to prevent screaming

According to Today I Found Out, duct tape was invented as a waterproof tape for ammunition cases and was military green and was called 'duck tape' , possible for its green and waterproof properties later called duct tape for its use on ducts and coloured silver to match. However today we are advised that the one area we should not use duct tape is ironically, on ducts!

Notting Hill Carnival: Raining Sunshine

'Some people feel the rain, others just get wet.'

Roger Miller (1973)

The idea that some people have only have a superficial interaction with the world around them while others have a deep and meaningful one is one distinction.

At Notting Hill Carnival, in today's rain, I would have to amend Millers quote:

Some may feel the rain, others may just get wet and some people have a sunny outlook whatever the weather.

Miller, R. (1972) December 31, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Section G: TV Weekly Log, “King of the Road” Roger Miller Wears No Special Labels Except He’s Talented, P. 5, Lubbock, Texas. (Newspapers_com) Cited by Quote Investigator

Pruning: Learning

'Genius will live and thrive without training, but it does not the less reward the watering pot and the pruning knife.'

 Margaret S Fuller (1839)  Life of Mackintosh, The American Montly Magazine, Vil 1: Vol 7, p.575

Natural talent will develop without formal training, but will none the less benefit from cultivation and focus. 

 

Francis Bacon (1597, 1625) discussed 'proyning, by study' in his essay  Of Studies :

'They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning, by study; and studies themselves, do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.'

Francis Bacon, (1625) The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans

  

Miller (1995) discusses Bacon's 'pruning by study' as 'self-cultivation':

'Pruning a "natural plant" directs the plant's growth by blocking the wasteful or inefficient use of its resources in order that they may be expended, and the plant expanded, in a narrower yet more fruitful direction.'

John, J. Miller (1995) Pruning by Study: Self-cultivation in Bacon's Essays, Papers on Language & Literature, Aut 95, Vol. 31:4