Human beings have the capacity to learn to want almost any conceivable material object. Given, then, the emergence of a modern industrial culture capable of producing almost anything, the time is ripe for opening the storehouse of infinite need!… It is the modern Pandora’s box, and its plagues are loose upon the world.

For the last three years,I have had the problem of what to wear at night.Because inevitably someone will ring the doorbell before I dress.As I get my shopping online I don’t want to miss this and pay £10 for a cab to some sorting office.
In fact, have we ever thought about what and why we wear certain things  in bed?
Before washing machines, we didn’t want our day clothes ruined by sleeping in them but that is what we might do now.Though ironing would get problematic, unless all people in the house do their own.
And we don’t want to be too hot.So wearing a dressing gown is perhaps not wise.
I tend to feel cold unless it’s 80 deg F.So I tried out wearing two nightdresses at once.Perfectly warm for reading and more opaque than Cherie Blair’s on her first morning in Downing St.However no one rang the bell.In any case I am cutting back on newspapers,  clothes etc so apart from getting some wonderful but small lobster claw extension chains so my necklaces are not strangling me I am not buying anything at all for myself.I like mending things so I have now got a  silver chain with two tiny torches on it hanging round my neck.I find them good for reading the instructions on packages.And if the power goes off then I am ok till I get a big torch out.
You can buy  packs of little torches and also tiny magnifying glasses.Less heavy to carry a little magnifying glass in the bag.Mine is heavy anyway with various emergency items.I can hardly post a letter without taking some with me just to cross the road.
I have stopped sending holiday postcards.But begun sending postcards of my own town with its ancient church and remains of palaces and old walls and gardens.
I like to get cards and letters but it is rare now.I like handwriting.I like guessing who it might be.I am not wearing a pen around my neck or a Tablet.I won’t be able to stand up if I do that.Why should I want one anyway?
Now.did you see the Stores are selling “modest” clothes for women? I shall be glad when leggings and crop tops disappear from the High Street especially beige or pale pink leggings which make women look almost nude as they potter in the town.Under-dressing? It might be because it’s a cheap style and many people are hard up.But dark leggings are much more flattering.Even old disabled men like my older brother are a bit disturbed by these visions.If I were him, I’d be glad.Not dead yet.

Digital  image by Katherine

https://www.wired.com/2010/10/feeling-sad-makes-us-more-creative/

Extract:

Why does a melancholy mood turn us into a better artist? The answer returns us to the intertwined nature of emotion and cognition. It turns out that states of sadness make us more attentive and detail oriented, more focused on the felt collage. Joe Forgas, a social psychologist at the University of New South Wales in Australia, has spent the last decade investigating the surprising benefits of negative moods. According to Forgas, angst and sadness promote “information-processing strategies best suited to dealing with more-demanding situations.” This helps explain why test subjects who are melancholy – Forgas induces the mood with a short film about death and cancer – are better at judging the accuracy of rumors and recalling past events; they’re also much less likely to stereotype strangers and make fewer arithmetic mistakes.