Tease

So, I have ideas for two pieces of writing.

One is about borderline experience - which will be called 'In praise of plurality'. And I will misquote Virgil, who, in Aeneid Book IV says women are variable and changeable things and will quote Gerard Manly Hopkins 'Pied Beauty' .

That will be a sort of magazine piece, a kind of Critical Theory piece, somewhat akin to this one by fellow borderliner Francesca Lewis - she has been very kind to me, I must email to thank her. This also reminds me to have another look at Russian Doll on Netflix, though I think I started it and didn't get into it.

The other is about the value of attention. I read a good paper by a woman with an odd name... maybe Jenni Kathi or Kathy Jenni or something. And it was about the immorality of inattention. Now, of course, we have ploughed these fields with Iris Murdoch back in the day. But it struck me that what I am saying about empathy is perhaps more akin to 'paying attention'. So, while you might be able to get away with abstracts and theories when you are determining policy or constructing a system, when it comes to individual people (or animals - or places) you have to attend to them and their context.

Right. So. This is the plan. Do you actually think I'll do it? Can you predict my excuses? Oh, I realised it was a crap idea. Oh, Lori Gruen already did it. Oh, what do I know, really?

Meanwhile, I sit in the garden with a fledgling robin at my feet. S/he still has speckles on her/his head. The scruffy blackbird is on the other side of the Mexican orange bush and baby wrens (yes, really!!!) squeak under the eaves. Baby someone else's squeak somewhere above me.

I wish them well. I wish them all well. May they be free from danger. Free from hunger. Free from pain. My they flourish.