Writing my posts is becoming more difficult day by day I am sorry to say. I like to read those who have posted that day who are on my side bar and comment on their posts. But by the time I have done that I am too weary to think about what to put on my own site.
So - reverse way round today and let's see how it goes.
I live on a very pleasant estate of bungalows, detached houses, semii-detached, a few flats - a nice mixture and nice trees and greenery around and quite a few green spots. The top of the estate, where I live, has a lot of different bungalows - detached, semi=detached, large, small -a good mix and all have pleasant gardens and from what I see most seem to have retired couples, widowed men or women, one or two single folk of both sexes and not many children in them. But judging by who walks past there are plenty of children further down the road.
It is a wetish, greyish day, chilly and with a brisk wind blowing. My pot-hole 'rain-gauge' at the bottom of the drive suggests it has been like this all night. Coated -dogs and anoraked- human beings walk past on this Easter Monday (I think unless you have a dog or are a strong-minded fitness freak you would choose to stay in today but there is nothing worse than an ' it is way past our walk time' stare from your best four-footed-friend to make your guilty feet get their wellies/boots on.)
And so they mooch past, pale green pooh bags swinging from the hand which is not holding the lead. I wonder what they are all thinking about (remember we are all 'oldies' up this end so no smart phones held aloft). Heads full of words, words, words - so easy to think on a relaxed walk but then ten minutes later when you get home, try to recall something you saw and tell your housemate and you are raking about in brain so full to over-flowing with words that you need a giant metaphorical sieve in order to recall some important noun or something without which the whole story you wish to relate becomes useless. And if you are under sixty and don't understand what I have just written in that last sentence don't worry - you'll arrive there soon enough. Make the most of it while you have it. 'It' being perfect recall.
According to Matthew Syed in yesterday's Sunday Times, Professor Neil Lawrence has written a book called 'The Atomic Human' in which he suggests that communicating with our fellow-humans by speaking to them is an inefficiant way of transmitting information - one to two hundred words a minute - compare this with two connected computers which over wi-fi can transfer information thirty million times faster. Syed suggests that all humans have some degree of 'locked in syndrome' when it comes to communication with others. We know what we want to say but we just can't get it over to the listener.
And, says Syed (and I wholly agree) that we humans have what he calls 'implicit forms of communication' which no machine can replicate. We are made free by poetry, prose, painting, music and love.
Do read his article if you can. It is incredibly mind-bending, for me at any rate. I have always argued that Picasso's 'Guernica' - a picture which says more than a thousand words on war and fascism can possibly do to me - is quite literally 'stunning' when you stand in front of it. Stunning and quite frighteningly unforgettable.
And on a lighter note (because I always manage to work this into my posts as Spring approaches - still in its slippers, especially when Easter is as early as it can be-)
'Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
is hung with blooms along the bough;
and all along the woodland ride
is wearing white for Easter-tide'.
Try telling somebody about a cherry tree in bloom which you have seen and I will guarantee they won't get the picture as well as Houseman does in 'A Shropshire Lad'.
Hopefully see you tomorrow.
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