When I think of minimalism I see an expensive house with an expensive kitchen and bathroom and expensive systems, all meant to isolate someone from the clutter that challenges them. To live in such an environment you need to be heavily invested in the institutions that clutter the lives of poor people who are surrounded by trash because they cannot afford to buy things that last for more than 12 months.
These rocket men are the embodiment of the sci-fi movies of the 20th century where progress was simply about making life easier which society bought into even though the…
That you 'believe' this to be a truth suggests it is relative. I believe there is absolute truth but we are looking from the inside out so we are not objective. Unfortunately your truths are not fundamental, rather they are derivative. That's fine but it means you can't reliably use them to build an informed world-view.
It seems to me you've fallen into the trap the conspiracy theorists have fallen into and you can't counter their world-view with your own truths. It seems to me that you can only come to a version of the truth through triangulation, i.e. checking…
A eulogy for my Mum
On 28 June family and friends congregated at a bus station called Stafford Crematorium where I gave the following eulogy.
Mum would have given you her last Rollo — she was the most selfless person I’ve ever met — but I recall a charity event which Mum felt she ought to contribute to. She found a birthday card she hadn’t used and wrapped it in cellophane. It would have raised a few pence at best. …
What’s Important
The result wasn’t really important to me either way. I tuned into the match because I wanted to be part of it and I did want England to win. I just couldn’t invest myself in the “Coming Home” thing. We can’t go through life not being invested just because we don’t want to be hurt or let down — disappointment is the yang (black) to life’s ying (bright). However you don’t have to spend all your time on the see-saw when there are swings and slides in the park. …
I've read the article I critiqued. I can't find another where you detail Israel's sins. How do you define 'evil' and would the woman killing the man in his sleep count as self defence?
In Operation Guardian of the Walls Hamas fired rockets in response to Israeli forces storming Al Aqsa. Technically that was a war crime because they fired the rockets into a residential area but what options do the Palestinians have?
I'm sure many Gazans would love to be rid of Hamas as Palestinians in the West Bank have little time for the PA but at least Hamas…
When other spaces are not
Weight lifting has among the lowest injuries of any sport despite the obvious danger of lifting excessive weights. This is because of regulations, training and attention to the inherent dangers. I remember being in a class where we were being taught to use dangerous equipment such as circular saws. The instructor related how a novice is probably less likely to sustain an injury than someone familiar with the machines because, as the adage goes, familiarity breeds contempt.
Statistically you are more likely to sustain an injury in your home than anywhere else. Getting out of bed is a notoriously injury…
We just need to get a break
What do we mean when we say the grass is always greener…? It’s a self reflection that we perceive our neighbour’s lot to be cosier, more abundant or less hassle. It’s also an admission that our perception, however valid, is selective. Yet many of us find it really difficult to dispel our own myth even though it’s very easily debunked. At the same time we are desperate to discover weeds and moss among our neighbour’s grass so as to disprove our own hypothesis. It’s classic cognitive dissonance and diminishes us to the thought process of our pets.
While I lived…
In every corrupt institution there comes a point where it eats itself and surely that time is upon the Republican Party. But Liz Cheney is not useful. Neither is the Democratic Party. The less corrupt cannot save us from the more corrupt. The USA will either implode upon itself (with catastrophic repercussions for the rest of the world), or a movement will galvanise and stand in the breach. Unfortunately the former is more likely.
But disposed to being kind
It’s often said that children can be cruel. Unhindered by protocol and convention, children tend to shoot from the hip. Their spontaneity can be disarmingly pure and wonderful but their directness can also be cutting and brittle. But even children we find precocious and mean, rarely have a complex agenda and even when the intention is questionable the goal tends to be self directed rather than malicious.
Childhood is a learning centre, preferably a safe space to test one’s negotiating skills and powers of persuasion. It’s a space where boundaries need to be pushed — how else would those boundaries…
