… for the wicked. Yes, despite the name I’m as wicked as the rest of you. And this ain’t a complaint.
After 14 months of blogging I was thinking of slowing down a bit, and had been doing so, and frankly had been rather struggling with ideas and energy levels. Two blog entries a week seemed reasonable. Perhaps a quiet period was called for, a bit of peace for Peace. But now?
Where to start? The last four blogs have triggered comments and interest in Prince Harry and family relations; the effects of being an only child; a further target for the Fund; imperial v metric measures; and friends raising money themselves. Then came the unexpected media interest and Telegraph article, ushering me into some sort of advocacy of assisted end-of-life and controversial law change. Seems like a lurch into another cause. We’ll see.
For today, a few inputs from friends about the ‘only-child experience’. Blog comment: ‘autonomy and independence essential’. Email from a couple, each twice married and each an ‘only’: she had “regarded it as a form of child abuse and always swore I would never have one child. I have two”. He “wasn’t that bothered, and had none”. Someone else wrote to say he echoed my colleague in the story I told: he had hated being an only child, was married and had four children “to spare them”.
And I can’t resist quoting from a friend’s email giving an example of an imperial measure.
“There are lots of interesting stories associated with imperial measures. One example I like is the chain (22 yards – the cricket pitch; must be another story there I think) which comes in a wooden box of 100 links, each consisting of a thick wire with a loop at each end to connect to the next link. A link is 8 inches long – but that can’t be right because 22 yards is only 792 inches – not 800. The clever ‘imperialists’ made the wire forming the links just the right thickness so that, when the chain is stretched out, the length is exactly 792 inches – the overlapping wires at each connection take up the ‘excess’ 8 inches”.
So there you have it – as easy to understand as the Laws of Cricket.
I’ll hang up my hat now. More tomorrow I hope. A number of things to write about in the next few days, including some liberation, and a special date in June, and another challenge. As I said, no rest for the wicked. Or, the Devil makes work for idle hands. Not getting a good reputation, am I?
I’ve been following all these stories with great interest and refraining from idle comment. One thing that stays in my mind, though, is the only child question. I was blessed with four brothers. Blessed when they grew up, I stress, not blessed when they were complete monsters! What wonderful times we have together – which is not often – singing. Without a big family, how can you have a choir? Some of us have taught our children how to sing – hymns and the old family songs. When we gathered for my mother’s funeral a few years ago (she lived to 98), we sang for hours. My choir director even asked us to sing the anthem in church. We don’t all agree on politics and philosophy and unimportant things like that, but singing together is the communion of the heart. Maybe that’s one reason I love you and Meriel so much – we made such music together, just like my family does.
“Singing together is the communion of the heart”. Beautiful phrase and absolutely true. And the communion endures: we last sang together over 30 years ago. Still together in heart.