Life
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Retirement: The Fast Approaching Last Day
There was a time when I would never have considered retiring and retirement, it wasn’t in the scheme of things, an unthinkable event far, far in the future. And now, here we are, with my retirement date officially set and a considerable amount of paperwork still to be completed, officialdom approached and convinced, plans set and followed through on. Yet, in the back of my mind is that thought, set in stone one sunny day back in 1969, sitting at a desk in a bleak primary school classroom in London, when I patiently worked out how old I would be in the year two thousand, and what I might be…
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Winter, Weather, And The Theory Of Chaos
Completely unexpected, as ever at this time of year, winter has hit what used to be part of the frozen north. For the first time in many years there is deep snow on the ground, the air is freezing cold, and winter woollies have regained their rightful place as a fashion statement. The news media have been quick to highlight the impending chaos as transport connections fail, bus, tram and train lines are cancelled, and the streets fall into an eerie silence. Only the chaos is missing. The human – of whatever sub-species we might claim to be – is reasonably adaptable, given the right warnings and personal balance. Most…
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The Heavy Weight of Inspiration
“Where” every artist, writer, creator is asked, “do you find your inspiration? What is it in your surroundings, in your home, your friends, your contacts, the world in general, that moves you to create whatever it is that you create? What is it”, they seem to be saying, “that you can see, that inspires you to greatness, which I cannot see?” As if any artist, regardless of their used medium, were able to give a quick How To on successful creativity. As some might say: you either have it, or you have it not. You have either learned how to see and how to evaluate, or you have not. And…
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Moving With the Times
I have been turning my thoughts back to a few of the literary and philosophical works I read as a youth, having recently been reminded of my pleasure in reading Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in my early teens. This is one of those titles a deep reader can pick up time and time again, and always find something new to consider, some aspect that had escaped them during an earlier reading, some relevance to today. This is also one of those works which almost failed to come into being, until a publisher, without anticipating any real commercial value or financial gain, finally brought it…
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A Most Respectable Lifestyle
I suspect it depends a great deal on a person’s interpretation of Respectable, and whether it can be accepted for many different ways of life, or just from those in certain professions, and the former landed gentry but, as a child, it was a lifestyle which appealed to me. The fault is undoubtedly that of my grandmother – mother’s side – who talked of the old ways of the professional tramp, and the morals and standards some of them lived up to. How they traversed the country, seeking odd jobs and short-term employment in return for sustenance and a quarter to rest in, before moving on to new areas; unbound,…
