Archimedes’ pocket calculator in working order but without the pocket. Cleopatra’s nightdress fm [washed and ironed] Aristotle’s chair with footstool and TV remote Abraham’s hat [unworn] Isaac’s laughter [ CD] Euclid’s ruler [plastic] Zeno’s hair [combed] Ten live Greek tortoises with name tags. Book of Numbers [ In Hebrew] Fifty limericks and Wordsworth’s hair [1 only
Job’s watch (automatic)
Isaac’s belt
Eve’s best apron
Eve’s halogen hob (new,other)
Job’s hanky.
Adam’s apple
Recipes from the Bible.
Jezebel’s handbag (goatskin) . Nearly new in good condition apart from scratches from her nails.
King David’s piano plus keys. Sorry no music as scroll unrolled
In 1993, I took a left turn one day out of my MFA program and found myself at the National Poetry Slam in San Francisco. There I discovered several poets who were funny for the sake of being funny. Particularly Hal Sirowitz from New York (“don’t stick your arm out the window, mother said” and Matt Cook from Milwaukee (“it was easy to write the Great American Novel, back when there were only five American novels”) Both poets initially delighted me and confounded me: There are no similes, a voice in my head said. What would Tom Lux (my first teacher) say? the voice continued. Despite my resistance, I believe those poets gave me a kind of permission to explore humor a little more vigorously in my second book, The Forgiveness Parade (1998), for “I thought the word loin and the word lion were the same thing. I thought celibate was a kind of fish”. Perhaps in that book there were places where I was too vigorous in my pursuit: looking back there are a few poems that are just a little too jokey somehow, a little one-dimensional.
I am becoming aware of how some humor can set a roadblock for the poetic speaker, making it impossible for the speaker to get back to a serious place. And how some other (less frequent) uses of humor can leave that door open. I want to leave that door open
After Mary went off to the Oxfam shop on her bike with a bag of surplus shoes Stan decided to clean his laptop computer.He was trying to open the plastic box of Screen Cleaning Tissues and wondering if he could have used a damp microfibre cloth instead.
He was feeling excited because he was going to take Mary away for the weekend to a Pie Museum on the Lincolnshire coast.
There was a knock on the back door.He saw Lisa and Tom,two students from Knittingham University.Tom’s grandmother was a friend of Stan’s.
“Hello,”said Tom,”this is Lisa Stoat my girlfriend.”
“Hello,Lisa.How are you?And where do you come from?”
“Hello,I’m fine, thanks.I believe my mum found me under a gooseberry bush near the A19 to Teesside.She’d been out rambling with the gypsies.Anyway she met my dad when I was 2.He’s doctor in Middlesborough,he adopted me and several other children my mother found from time to time out in the country.There are six of us now.There are lots of gooseberry bushes on Teesside.”
“Thank you for that,Lisa.”Stan said
“Please don’t mention it; you are more than welcome!” the lovely girl told him gently.
“Would you like some gooseberry pie.”Stan asked her modestly
“Yes,I’m ravenous.” the girl replied shyly,her cheeks turning bright red
“Well,you know you are a growing girl.” Stan chuntered .”I’m afraid I can’t find the cake forks”
“That’s a pity,” replied Tom.”I’ve never seen a cake fork in my entire life.”
“Oh,goodness,”Stan called.”What did you do?”
“Well,we used an axe to cut the pies up and then lay on the floor and grabbed bits with our teeth.!”
“Where you raised by cats?” Stan cried querulously.
“To a certain extent,”the boy honestly admitted.”But I can use a knife and fork now for meat and veg and also I can now use a lavatory rather than digging a hole in the soil or using a plant pot.”
“Have you thought of writing your autobiography?”Stan demanded curiously
“I feel I’m a bit young for that and the cats, Lucy and Mario, might be offended.”
“Can they read?”Stan muttered loudly.
“Not yet but I’m doing phonics with them. the government recommends that according to the News of the Failed.”
“But not for cats,surely?” Stan replied jovially.
“Well,you win some you lose some!” Tom answered with the unique and original turn of phrase typical of one raised by cats
Lisa got over. excited.”You could call it “A tale of two Kitties”” she cried hysterically.
“Oh,my God.Is she bipolar?” Stan thought nervously
“But what would Professor Fittsgenstein think?”
“I rarely think,” said a man who had crept into the kitchen through the cat flap.”And I have to confess that I too was partially raised by cats.”
“Welcome.Professor”, they all shouted
“What a coincidence!”
“Well,”said Annie, who had been listening through the keyhole,”It’s very common in Knittinghamshire you know.The mortgages are so big,both parents have to work so they have no alternative but to leave the children at home with the cats.They all learn to mioaw which can be useful.” She then gave a loud”mioaw” and disappeared.”I’d better ring 999 ” Stan whispered.”I think she is going crazy.
“Oh,no” Tom stated knowingly,”If you could enter into the narrative of her life and reach the place where she is you would see it all makes perfect sense.”
“What even the thick layers of makeup and the T K Maxx perfume.”Stan enquired philosophically”Yes,indeed.” the lad told him ardently “Didn’t Schopenhauer advise against about pretending to be someone other than your true self?” Stan said thoughtlessly
“I’m sorry but we have only reached pi and the Ancient Greeks.Is Philosophy actually meant to help you with real life problems?”
“What sort of pie did they eat?”Stan wondered anxiously.
“I guess maybe apricot or peach,”said Lisa womanly
“Well,I have the Fanni Far Mer cookery book here.I’ll look it up.”
“But she’s American? poor Lisa said peevishly
“I thought she was a Turk!” Stan informed her humorously
“What about Gud How Ski Ping?” She debated
“Yes,I do like Chinese. food” he informed her.”It is very popular all over the world.
I’d better brew the tea,Stan decided…the kettle was now boiling noisily on the hot red coal fire… frightening Emile who was sleeping on the rag rug in front of it…
So it’s goodbye from Knittingham and Nottingham too
I remember funny things we did Peering into windows lit by lamps Climbing cliffs then chased by geese and dog
Walking down from Redcar, sea so still After Saltburn Pier, the cliffs high jump I remember all the funny things we did
Wandering Whitby in a sea grey smog Eating a pork pie cut into lumps Climbing cliffs then chased by geese and dog
Old Hunstanton , white sands where we’d sit The wild spikes of the gorse spread out unclamped I remember all the colours,scents, and that
I feel the joy inside my heart is lit Woe is leavened by old nature’s stamp Climbing high then chased through mud by dogs
We see in shadows shades are not so stark In Studland Bay astonished by skylarks I remember all the humour and the love Climbing cliffs then caught by geese and God
We were chased by geese in Devon after climbing a cliff.No doubt chased by a man after we peered into his garden
Saturday was shopping then a walk Epping,Ongar,Finchingfield by car Reading book reviews and chewing stalks Buttercups and meadows,Henry Moore
Driving back from Chelmsford, cornfields flamed Smoke and fire and earth, the sun dismayed Farmers working hard, a harvest, grain The sky through mist a cobalt blue displayed
Standon with its fords and wandering cows Little rivers,Essex, flowing down The Stort joins with the Lea,a gurglimg sound Water for the Thames and mossy ground
The earth feels like my body sacrificed An artist’s canvas stretched , a matricide
The geese have changed their flight path to the lake For further to the East a river runs Once used for milling flour for bread and cake For making bulbs for lights and wartime guns
The lightbulbs were a fiction in the War Radar was the secret they researched An old man in my Art Class once worked there A physicist who worshipped still in Church
God and radar,guns and shells and tanks Angels,demons,Jesus Christ we’re damned Money lenders,presidents and Banks Evil now seems normal in our land
We saved the world from Hitler but we died No souls survive nuclear matricide
I was very pleased that we were getting a Labour government after 14 years of suffering with the Tories
I have never voted for the conservatives and I never will.
I am a little worried because of the lack of experience of many of the people now in parliament and indeed in the Cabinet
And I know that they have to save money somewhere somehow without upsetting too many people. Already the Times reports that many of the top wealthy people in Britain are going to leave before or soon after the autumn budget.
They don’t want to pay more tax and they should be sharing wealth . But if they are like that we’re better without them.
In any case it’s an old story that’s always being rolled out by some newspaper and the Times is no longer what it used to be
The winter fuel payments were never part of the state pension but they were introduced by Gordon brown in 1997
Only a labour Government coukd risk changing them
And that’s what they are planning to do. Well no matter how much it saves it seems to have given ammunition to their enemies. As well as that there is a lot of opposition to Keir Starmer himself and his chancellor Rachel reeves from the left wing in the Labour Party who believed that he us no longer a left wing person. They don’t feel grateful that he has won the election at all whereas I do.
So he’s being attacked in two directions. It’s a pity that they didn’t think about this more before it was made public.
Instead of abolishing it for everybody except those on pension credits they could have made it taxable which would mean that the wealthy would pay 40% And moderately wealthy would pay 20% and poorer people would not pay anything at all in to the taxman.
Even this would have been criticized by the conservatives and by the press but it’s defensible
After all state pensions rose by 900 pounds two years ago and by 400 pounds in the last year
Removing it entirely from people who just are a few pounds of pension credit is very tough it doesn’t look sympathetic at all and I think people do expect labour to be more kind to the poor or the old or the cripples than the Tories are.
There are arguments on both sides which are quite coherent and logical
But if you wanted to give some on a stick to beat you is you either remove something from children or from the elderly.
And it puzzles me because the prime minister is a very intelligent man and Rachel Reeves is a very intelligent woman
I’m not arguing against what they’re doing but I’m saying did they really know what the effect would be in the media. Always looking for bad news.. or for pretending something is bad news when it is not.
What they really need in their team is someone who has worked advertising
And that rules out me.
My speech to text calls the Tories the notorious and that’s quite a good name for them
In my despair I felt that I was stuck Paralysed by grief and guilt I failed By the end I had tried every trick
From prayer unthought to deeps of logic black My life, my engine ,juddered off the rails I hated God and of “his” Church was sick
Starving and alone I was in shock The death of one I loved had made me frail By the end I had tried every trick
I felt Love’s arms around me, death was blocked I knew this goodness, why else would I wail? I thought I hated God but Love had struck
Warm and golden light that did me hold Where are you now when Evil has grown bold? Kind despair that made me long time sit By the end I learned Love needs no trick
” Stop telling yourself that you need to feel upbeat, and it begins to seem less pointless to make some tiny effort to address one or two of those problems: to take on a small weekly volunteering role here; to make a modest donation to charity there. The solution to feeling so despairing about the news, in short, is to let yourself feel despairing – and take action, too. “One of the great things about everything being so fucked up,” Jensen likes to say when speaking to audiences, “is that no matter where you look, there’s a lot of work to be done.”
Don’t kid yourself that you will single-handedly eradicate nationwide or global problems; instead, define and pursue small-scale goals, like joining a campaign with some connection to the issues that trouble you the most. Focus on activities you enjoy: these will be much easier to sustain. And there is certainly some relief in attending to your own wellbeing. Exercise, sleep, time spent in nature, meditation and socialising are all proven paths to increased happiness; they’re cliches, but only because they really work – and it isn’t self-indulgent to make time for them.
Paradoxically, it’s through taking action, despite not feeling happy about the situation, that a deeper kind of happiness can arise. (That’s certainly the implication of research on the emotional benefits of volunteering, charitable giving, community involvement and political protest.) Jensen has written that people sometimes ask him why he doesn’t just kill himself, if things are as bad as he says. “The answer is that life is really, really good. I am a complex enough being that I can hold in my heart the understanding that we are really, really fucked, and at the same time that life is really, really good. I am full of rage, sorrow, joy, love, hate, despair, happiness, dissatisfaction, and a thousand other feelings. ”
Rosa was looking in a very interesting clothes shop online.Here she saw an outfit totally
unsuited to her new post as Head of Linguistics in the University of Unisex. There her eye was drawn to a pair of blue trousers with a red stripe down each leg.The trousers were somewhat shorter than in the days of that pair of women, Trinny and Susanna who told all of us how to dress.Especially to wear trousers that cleaned the pavement as we walked along as it made our legs look longer
Rosa met her friend Mary for coffee.
What do you think of these trousers, Mary? she asked, showing them to the bewildered lady on her HP Phablet.
I don’t think Stan would have liked those, she murmured.
I see some advantages, Rosa said.
If you have nice ankles then it reveals them and if not, you can wear really fun socks with butterflies on them.
Real butterflies? Mary queried anxiously
No, embroidered or knitted, Rosa said.You see them in those catalogues that come round before Xmas
Or you could knit your own, said Mary.
I think knitting butterflies is very hard, Rosa whispered.
Nothing is innately hard, said Mary.It all depends on what you already know and if you have a good teacher and your devotion
How does Quantum theory compare to knitting butterflies? Rosa enquired jocosely.
That makes it sound as if you will knit with actual butterflies or that butterflies themselves might knit! Mary exclaimed.
That would be a thing you might see on LSD
Is that the latest kind of TV set, Rosa asked her?
For goodness sake, Rosa.Have you never taken drugs?
I don’t believe I have.You see at Oxford I was friendly with an ex-heroin addict.
He told me not to buy drugs because I saw things like other people do when they take heroin.But I see like that naturally!
Well, that is fortunate for you, Mary sighed.Was it true?
There is no way of knowing, said Rosa scientifically but it saves money.
Well ,how about these trousers?I could get some red ankle boots and a red shirt.Noone wears dresses anymore except maybe transsexuals.
I wear them,Mary said.When I was thin I wore a knitted dress.
Not knitted by butterflies I hope,Rosa giggled
Well, it was from M & S so I doubt it although it would be cheaper to use them as butterflies don’t know what money is!
Nor do many human beings now.Why, plastic £5 notes…. it’s like toy money And so say all of us
I believe that’s a quotation from the New testament and of course many of our sayings do come from the Bible and then from the works of Shakespeare and then from other great poets and writers.
But what what does this saying mean?
Everybody is born with hearing via their ears but this saying seems to be implying that there’s some other kind of hearing that not everybody attains.
So it doesn’t matter how wonderful a speech someone makes nor what’s an interesting conversation a friend is trying to have with you if you don’t have the right kind of hearing. And this involves a lot more than just the ears then what they’re saying is lost on you.
Because the senses don’t act independently and when you’re talking to someone it’s not just the words that you’re saying but they are reading your face and your eyes. They are reading your bodily movements.
This is where there could be problems for some of us if we are not familiar with understanding people’s faces and knowing their emotions and so on.
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression
I could read him like a book
So there are different sorts of seeing and hearing probably far more than I would know about. So you may have eyes and ears that function normally but it is hard to learn how to hear and to see more deeply and more sensitively and not all of us achieve this. Because we we don’t know what we don’t know, if you see what I mean.
It reminds me of a young man proposing to a woman he loves but she remains
Deaf to his entreaties
Similarly Audi self might send us messages about the deeper needs of our self. But we may not hear these we may not notice anything.
How do we learn to hear?
It’s partly through contact with other people and through school,studying works of art and literature.
Maybe some people are more likely to notice these things.
If you’re living in a very unsafe country then you don’t have any space in your mind or how to take in more than what’s essential.
But it’s interesting there is always more to see a more to hear a more to learn if we learn how to be open to it
This is another say8ng6 of my mother. I think the meaning is obvious.
And moving from what happens in the UK into what happens to people in other countries it’s obvious that in many countries it really is true that many people live on the verge of start version
27 years ago the chancellor Gordon Brown introduced the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. This amounted to £200 for a person under 80 and £300 for those above 80.
Assumption is that many pensioners cant afford to pay their heating bills.
Our new government announced recently that this payment is going to be abolished and it’s causing a lot of controversy.
But I think a lot of people can’t afford to heat their homes to an ideal level
And who decides on that level? If you are over 70 it is recommended your home is heated to at least 18 C but there is no recommendation for the average person although it’s obvious that babies and young children will need warm bedrooms.
I think the right wing press are using this issue to attack the government an exaggerating the effect of the cut but on the other hand I’ve already said that I think it’s a mistake owing to a lack of imagination.
Even with this payment many pensioners will be afraid of the winter.
Food has gone a lot more expensive than it was before the pandemic. Brexit has probably influenced that
The mood in the country is poor many people feel very angry and unhappy.
So is it right that some people are paid very low wages waste is not possible to heat the home or eat the food that’s most desirable?
There are two main definitions of poverty in Britain. There is absolute poverty which means that you can’t eat properly buy suitable clothing and keep your home warm.
You may not have a home if you’re living in absolute poverty.
Then there is relative poverty. This means that you cannot afford things which are regarded as important by most people. You can only buy what’s essential and you may not be able to afford to buy your children a computer or a smartphone. You may not be able to dress in the way that you would like or the same applying to your children, I’m not sure where to place a problem of you can’t afford enough beds for your family so several children are sleeping in one bed or even sleeping on a chair, that sounds like absolute poverty but people in that position are not usually helped by the government or the local authority.
It’s been reported that school teachers are buying clothes for children or taking in food to give them breakfast and some teachers are providing laundry services for children’s school uniforms. This seems to happen when someone’s washing machine breaks down and they can’t afford to replace it
And taking a lot of close to the laundrette to wash is expensive. That is it’s expensive for the poor as the wealthy and the middle income people would be able to use a launderette if they wanted to.
So what indeed is essential. And what is a luxury?
I wonder whether anybody ever thinks about this in the government.
My grandfather was a coal miner for 50 years but I never heard him complain. I suppose his neighbours and relatives were in the same position and nobody had more heating than a coal fire in the living room. The rest of the house was not heated unless somebody was ill when possibly you might have a paraffin heater in the bedroom.
I can remember having a high temperature and lying in my mother’s bed with a Tilley lamp warming the room.
As I was delirious it seem to take on a threatening sound so I lay there frightened
I can’t remember whether the room felt warm.
So people didn’t expect much. no there is more knowledge and more awareness of what other people are earning and how they live. That makes it harder for the poor
Why do we have an appendix just like the Oxforddictionary and does this mean that I am a dictionary?
Aristotle invented logic but wouldn’t you have to know what it was before you could invent it?
The truth must have been that Aristotle gave a name to a certain use of language which already existed.
It seems very simple as in the argument
If all A are B
And if this is an A
Then it must be a B.
It doesn’t seem very productive does it?
I am jealous of the Greeks because they could invent things that were quite simple since nothing else have been invented previously or at least nothing else have been given a name
So in a sense they were like gods because God invented the world or by naming the different parts.
I’m frequently impressed when I remember sayings adages, things my mother used to say which are often related to bodily states
When I couldn’t find my glasses I was searching nervously or frantically and only found them when I gave up…..
I remembered my mother saying
You can’t see, for looking.
This is very interesting because like language itself and the developments from it these are coming from the lips of ordinary People. And they’re recognisinhg something which is only in the last hundred years been scientifically described I believe.
There are two kinds of seeing
Very focussed seeing.. narrow purposive vision… This is when we’ve got some thing which our mind is pinned on to and we ignore everything else apart from that very narrow bit of the world that we see very intently. We can also switch into this when we’re under stress, severe stress sometimes.
Then there is the way that the owl must look when it is looking from the tree for something to eat
Wide vision where you’re not focusing sharply on any individual spot in the landscape but your eyes widened and you’re scanning the whole at once. When the owl sees something then he or she must switch into the sharply focused mode and swoop down to catch the little beast that was spotted so the owl could have something to eat
I think artists also will be familiar with this. The eye muscles have to be relaxed which will happen spontaneously when necessary or sometimes you can do it deliberately. There are breathing techniques and relaxation techniques which can switch into this mode
Going back to the adage
You can’t see for looking.
See refers to broad vision with the eye muscles relaxed
And ,cleverly, looking refers to sharply focused vision
So if you’re looking too hard you can’t see
Well it took me 48 hours to find my glasses
I had taken them off in my bedroom to put some sunscreen on my face and then I couldn’t find them
I was looking in the bedroom for them
But when I found them they were downstairs in the sitting room
I wasn’t even trying to find them them and I’d given up completely
My old ones are adequate for most purposes but nevertheless if you if you wear glasses you know that having the ones you’re used to especially for reading is really very important and some of us feel incomplete without them.
I’m always grateful when I find something and I often look up at the sky and say
Thank you.
And thank you to all those human beings that came before us and left us wisdom in these sayings. And this was long before they were schools and universities and other learning organizations.
I sometimes think that we are getting less intelligence as time goes on.
The prophet Elijah heard the still small voice when he was hiding in a cave on top of Mount Sinai
This was during the iron age which is a long time ago.
But when I was thinking about the story one day I suddenly felt a strong kinship with this person who is on the mountain fleeing from Queen Jezebel who wanted to kill him and then he heard the voice of God speaking to him but it was not a strong or violent or loud voice. No only when the tempest had gone and the fires had gone and everything was quiet that he heard the still small voice which is sometimes translated as a whisper.
I am not particularly religious in the conventional sense but ever since I heard this story possibly when I was a child I’ve always liked the idea because I think when we create things or when we looking for answers to a problem we often have to be patient and quiet so that we can hear this little voice inside us and I don’t think it’s just the voice of conscience. I think it’s the Voice of creativity
When someone is brought up in a very religious home it is quite frequent that they have a cruel conscience.
And one which does not whisper but shouts at them if they do the slightest thing wrong that they’re become afraid they’re going to go to hell and are very frightened
That kind of a conscience does not lead to creativity.
Because there’s another voice inside us just as there are other voices in our dreams and our day dreams. Are these little whispers helpful ideas or guidance on the path we are following that’s what I think they are.
But there is one important condition… that if we use them for egocentric purposes that the result will be no good. In other words the condition is selflessness. Just not egocentric if we can manage that but we can try not to do it things purely for self gratification or to become famous or wealthy or dominating
Our world is very noisy now ;once I went into a hairdressers and it was very quiet and peaceful so I was pleased but while my hair was being done the hairdresser apologised for the lack of music because something was broken in their system. When I said I preferred it like that she was very surprised.
It’s almost as if we’re trying to drown out the voice of God or whatever you like to interpret these things as.
And when we are alone we put the radio on or the television or we look on the computer for something to interest us.
I wonder how if we’re starting from the beginning how would we be able to encourage our inner self and begin to develop this little voice which helps us and to learn to hear it when it speaks. And although it’s quiet like a whisper it doesn’t mean it’s not important.
But it’s not going to use force on you because if you’re forced to do something or to listen to something you do not wish to cooperate. I would say that’s true for the majority of people. But if someone whispered the suggestion in your ear you’re much more likely to pay attention and to think about it as long as you’ve got a bit of time and space
And that’s the problem now for many people just trying to get a house pay the rent or more with have enough money for food and build and to encourage your children it’s very difficult even with our modern conveniences
Expect you’ve noticed that once we get a new machine like a washing machine instead of using it to help us we create more work by deciding that we can wash everyone’s clothes more frequently and that will take up the time that you saved
We have to keep some of that time for ourself even if other people think we’re being selfish. It may only be half an hour. But if we have half an hour every day quietly listening and waiting gradually we will change and notice things that we didn’t notice before.
This is what I have come to believe over the years and I have come across other people with the same perception.
It won’t make you famous or rich but it might make you more happy than you were or you may feel that you have to do something that might be difficult but that is your journey that is your vocation
Probably you won’t be happy unless you do that. But everybody’s got to find their own way. So if you don’t like what I say or you disagree with me that is very good.
Our opponents are our co-creators.
I’m not sure who said that but I think there’s a lot of truth in it.
My dear sister was sometimes critical of me because I have a lot of books. When I was ill someone decided to tidy it up and took my books out of the bookshelves: put them into boxes in a different room and told me,Your sitting room looks a lot better now that it’s in order. Then I was very distressed even angry. I couldn’t find anything.
That’s the conventional view that a room which is half empty with polished furniture and neat sofas and chairs is the perfect home however order to me is not about constant tidying up to the extent that you are not allowed to eat drink or almost breathe in someone’s living room because they’ve just cleaned it.
And of course I knew where all my books were and I knew where all my art books were
And I knew where the cookery boots were as well but it’s taken me a long time to find the books I need again.
I’m not finished the job yet.
So the deeper sort of order is where the owner of the room or the house has an internal map of where everything is which may not be apparent to a stranger or even to a sister.
Interestingly, there is an article today in some of the newspapers saying that experts have found that the desire for total orderliness and minimalism is driving some people crazy when they’re already busy with looking after their family working in a demanding job or a boring job or tiring job.
Because being judged is very painful and if you feel that everybody who comes to visit you is going to judge you on the number of possessions you have and the state of your house then you won’t be able to relax and enjoy their company
I expect one should follow the rule of
Do not take it personally
Yes we need a certain amount of order of the traditional kind. We need to wash our clothes we need to cook and wash up we need to make beds even to change the sheets but where’d you draw the line,?
I must confess that I was shocked when I was a student living in a bed sitter when one of my friends said she only changed sheets once a month.
At that point I was still doing what my mother did which was changing one sheet following the rule of top to bottom. As I got older and more tired and realized that if you are a clean person you might not need to change your sheets every week then that’s what I did… change them once a fortnight. And it’s nice to have clean sheets. So it’s a pleasure which might be worthwhile doing more frequently as long as it doesn’t make you ill and tired
In any case all the cleaning and tidying and washing used to be regarded as women’s work and of no value.
But in fact this work is of value despite my criticism of people who are over orderly and over clean.
As I said to my sister,
A rich person like the author Michael Frayne can afford a big house with lots of bookshelves and so tidiness to some extent is linked with money
For older people and thisr with asthma and other chronic conditions it may be very important to have a dust free and very clean home.
But it should not be regarded as a moral necessity.
I don’t know why some people feel impelled to judge others constantly.
Someone in my family criticizes another person if they get new furniture but really it wasn’t their business
It wasn’t causing any trouble financially so if this person wanted to have any furniture every five years or 10 years rather than waiing till it fell apart then to me that seemed a reasonable choice because life is not very long and if you don’t like your furniture to get worn out and dirty and you want to get a new sofa or whatever that is your choice and you are entitled to it if you can afford it. And that’s one of the problems about poverty that peopke are not only short of food and heating bills are frightening but also they they have no choice about whether they want a new bed or a fridge or freezer because they can’t afford it anywhere even if it’s necessary.
There’s a lot of pain in being poor and it is not acknowledged by many of us. And it’s not surprising that mental illness is more common in the poor.
And if you were a powerful person people will not criticize you for being untidy because they’ll be frightened or you.
Still I would not wish to live the way that I the philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch lived because you have to recognize that if your floor is covered in rubbish you are at risk of getting rodents etc
So I’m not advocating for complete ignoring of dirt and mess but saying that having a few piles of books in your living room it’s not really something to be ashamed of.
If I went into a room like that I would long to look at the books and be interested in the person.
I suppose wevwomen don’t always 1 realise what stress we are suffering instead we feel guilty because our home is not perfect like the ones on the television programs we’ve been having recently.
Since my home was tidied I found it much harder to write because my hands reach out for a book in a shelf but it’s not there. I spend time trying to find it and its fellow books which used to be so near me all the time.
If you want to help another person don’t assume that they want their house to be tidy in the way your house is tidy. That they want all their kitchen utensils in a jug on the windowsill because what looks disorderly to one person is actually the order of somebody else. That’s somebody else is different from you. That they are entitled to their own way of life
And also you may need to tell them that you cannot just borrow books from the public library because they do not have books that are only readable by a small group of people about things like philosophy history poetry music art. It’s become even more true in recent years when governments have cut back on money and the local council is running out of money and so they closed the libraries or they buy fewer books.
And if you want the book as a reference book as you might do if you are a writer or an academic or an artist then borrowing it from the public library is not really sufficient. That’s why people steal sometimes. And that’s selfish but on the other hand is understandable if you can’t afford to buy something that you really need badly.
But if man’s salvation depended on his capacity to see the facts, both about himself and the outside world, and if the poets were the pioneers in this, what were the conditions under which poetry could grow? For a long time I had been puzzled by the continual recurrence of images from the Bible in my thinking. Then I find this note in my diary: Just supposing this is what the Gospel story is partly about? All this year it’s been growing in my mind, the possibility that the Gospel story is concerned, not with morals at all, not with what one OUGHT to do, because someone (God, father). expects it of you, but with practical rules for creative thinking, a handbook for the process of perceiving the facts of one’s own experience – and, of course, in this sense, with ‘salvation’, for it is ignorance and blindness which lead to the City of Destruction. And the central truth, is it that only by a repeated giving up of every kind of purpose, plunging into the void, voluntary dying upon the cross, can the human spirit grow, and achieve those progressive fusings of isolated bits of experience which we call wisdom, truth?
It’s not the winter fuel allowance,it’s the disparity between the rich and the poor.
Many people are criticizing the government for deciding to stop paying this extra two or three hundred pounds once a year to pensioners.
Some of the more right-wing newspapers are publishing pathetic stories about old people probably dying of Cancer or other diseases who will be badly affected by losing 200 pounds a year.
But nobody mentions the fact that they enormous gap now in this country between the rich and the poor it’s got wider under the conservative government. And there are many people but elderly and young and middle aged who are very poor and cannot afford enough heating in the winter.
If there was more equality of income and in particular less gigantic bonuses for people at the top of companies such as water and electricity and so on then nobody would need the winter fuel allowance. And if you are a really poor pensioner then even
£ 200 extra is not sufficient to pay to heat even a small flat for the long British winter
But of course it is an error by this government because it can make headlines.
It seems to be a lack of imagination, did they not realize how the right wing press would use this?
I hope this is not a sign of some weakness of imagination and some lack of intelligent thought about how such decisions will play out in public.
We dont want the prople at the bottom of my society to suffer like they did when the cConservatives won the election and defeated Gordon brown. Too much suffering already.
So I am glad that we’ve got a new government of a different sort but I hope they will be able to take advice about choosing rightly how to get more money to do what needs to be done.
My heart is like a rowing boat adrift
Whose occupant has fallen overboard
The empty vessel drifts through deep sea mist.
And in those pearl filled ears the deep sea roars.
Just as the boat drifts mapless,so do I.
My maps were drawn for quite another sea
My captain’s taken leave and now I cry
As if that drowned soul might just be me.
Yet on the sea bed mysteries abound;
Such wonders and such magic there displayed.
I wonder if it is my lot drown
And to a memory then quickly fade.
Maps are no more certainties than hints.
Between the lines hides gold from other mints.
Teal skies glaze Lake Windermere again. My lover arrives, looking calm and kind. He inspires me–that man walking by me in near silence to Stone house where my cat waits patiently by the glittering fire. Now gentle teal skies fade into soft lilac grey endings. Cat,once more. On the prowl. Lover in my bed Softly caresses my skin with tenderness. Skin against skin. Touching. Love touches; Allows goodness And truth into this world.
How my heart sings 