A correspondent recently opined that I write baldly.  Whether he’s seen my unthatched pate or is having his own problems with auto-correct in Word (see From the Kitchen #12) or is being tongue-in-cheek, I don’t know.  I baldly go …

I do hope I write boldly.  Timidity does not become a writer and certainly doesn’t suit me.  I aim to entertain, while at the same time, with varying degrees of subtlety, informing, challenging, even upsetting.

I also write to challenge myself.  I’m sometimes surprised at what comes out of my fountain pen. (more…)

Many of the great teachings talk of mindfulness, being in the moment, waking from the dream of past and future and living in the ‘now’.  There are people who devote their lives to learning how to do that and, once learned, perfecting it.

The thing about being mindful of the present moment is that you miss nothing, even when it’s no longer there.  There is a trick to it, though: memories that come up are at that moment, the moment.  It’s about honouring wherever our attention is right now. (more…)

Yesterday I came upon a poetical prisoner.  It was right there in front of me, on my computer screen.  It started life as a poitical prisoner in Word and the program offered me two possible corrections.  I clicked without looking carefully.  Many such corrections, and some ‘auto correct’ solutions don’t get discovered and reprimanded until the second or third proof-reading.

Some words make it through to the finial printing, because they area words (a common one fro me is … oops, just that), or because Word thinks they are nad doesn’t raise its Microsoft^® eyebrow.  I might have to send the program to the Department of Corrections fro re-education. (more…)

I’m feeling feisty today, possibly because I’ve just finished rewriting a story set in a future, fragmented, totalitarian Australia.

Benevolent dictatorship could be the way to solve all the stupidity around us.  But I am the only person who could head such a regime in such a way that everyone would be better off, the environment would be cleaned up, species extinction would halt, peace would be the norm.  However, I would no longer have the time to write or walk the dog.

It is a question that continually engages me: why is it so hard for governments to do what is right?  I don’t know the answers.  ‘Right’ does not include supporting buddies and vested commercial interests.

We repeatedly elect governments with the hope (sometimes expectation) that things will change for the better.  They seem to for a short while and then it is almost like watching a brand new car take off on a freshly-laid road, only to soon get bogged in the soggy ruts left by previous incumbents. (more…)