I have an app on my phone that identifies birdsong so that when I am walking through the woods I can tell a woodpecker from a robin. Every so often it insists on playing an advert that ironically makes me much less likely to buy whatever it is selling and makes me too bitter and resentful to buy … [Read more...] about The Stoppable Rise Of Technology
Gratitude
Wild Geese
I'm in self-isolation and I've noticed that my chutzpah at having to stay in permanently might have been somewhat misplaced. Currently, I'm well and that's certainly something to be thankful for but, under those circumstances, being confined to home is surprisingly unsettling. The thing I miss … [Read more...] about Wild Geese
When Needing To Know Is Just Too Much
It was 1979 and I was sitting in the living room at Simon Bradshaw's house, watching TV with his family. The room was dark, deep red wallpaper and a long black leather sofa stretching across one wall. The news and the darkness were making me feel that everything was closing in. The Russians … [Read more...] about When Needing To Know Is Just Too Much
The Best Thing That Happened Today
Sitting with my family around the increasingly wobbly antique dining table that still reminds me of childhood family Christmases, I am passing around bowls of pasta with two types of tomato sauce. "Do you want the one with olives, Beth?" "Is it the olives that taste like fish?" "They don't … [Read more...] about The Best Thing That Happened Today
Enjoying The Journey
In the film "Manhattan" there is a scene near the end where Isaac is listing for himself all the things that make life worth living. Groucho Marx, Willie Mays, the 2nd movement of the Jupiter Symphony, Louis Armstrong's recording of "Potato Head Blues", Swedish movies, "Sentimental Education" by … [Read more...] about Enjoying The Journey