Foxgloves

The foxglove bells, with lolling tongue,
Will not reveal what peals were rung
In Faery, in Faery,
A thousand ages gone.
All the golden clappers hang
As if but now the changes rang;
Only from the mottled throat
Never any echoes float.
Quite forgotten, in the wood,
Pale, crowded steeples rise;
All the time that they have stood
None has heard their melodies,
Deep, deep in wizardry
All the foxglove belfries stand.
Should they startle over the land,
None would know what bells they be.
Never any wind can ring them,
Nor the great black bees that swing them—
Every crimson bell, down-slanted,
Is so utterly enchanted.

 

We have a monarch who is supposed to exercise reserve powers independently to protect Her People if needed when Her Government goes full on Pol Pot, and Parliament fails to do its job, but since she has failed in that duty up until now it is unlikely she will step up this time - too busy writing another trite, anodyne speech to patronise us on Christmas Day.

 In decisions of this kind, the search process is highly recursive. We adapt our preferences on the basis of what we find. We may think we want a garden flat in Fulham but once shown a penthouse in Rotherhithe we revisit our assumptions. A good salesman may know you better than you know yourself.

Most institutions should NOT have values. Morals are for us.

The moral is for the individual. Otherwise you get legislated moral uniformity, you get the imposition of a moral code, you get inquisition, you get burning.

 

 James McAuley wrote: ‘Valediction: Roy Campbell’ 

He stood against the leveling stampede

And cracked the stockman’s whip of his polemic; 

He never left his friends or slurred his creed 

In times when cowardice grew epidemic. 

Action he loved, and honour, and the life 

Of simple men before machines were master. 

He gave a pure devotion to his wife, 

And said his rosary amidst disaster. 

Contemptuous of the babble of his time, 

He loved the Muses with a noble passion, 

Catching a golden splendour in his rhyme 

When rhyme and splendour both were out of fashion.

Who now shall bring back from our wars a song, 

Like Heracles returning with a trophy? 

May Christ who calls the singer from the throng 

Give stars and music to his heavenly strophe.

 

• “Objection. The question is argumentative.”

OBJECTION - LEADING THE WITNESS

OBJECTION - ASKED AND ANSWERED

Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks are French, themechanics German, the lovers Italian and it's all organised by the
Swiss. Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the
lover's Swiss, the police German and it's all organised by the Italians.

 The world record for the deadlift in the 148-pound weight class is just over 700 pounds, whereas the world record for the 308-pound weight class is 939 pounds. Doubling the weight class does not double how much a man can deadlift; it only increases the amount by about 30 percent. That is a dangerous tradeoff because large muscles require more oxygen to function, and if you are working so hard that you cannot replace that oxygen fast enough, you will go into oxygen debt.

 "If anyone tells you that there's no such thing as truth, they're asking you not to believe them, so don't"

 

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof

 Optimists look at adversity as temporary, external and not entirely their fault. 

Pessimists view adversity as unchangeable, pervasive and personal. 

 

Negative bias - when you're negative your brain goes in to  fight-or-flight mode, thinking that there could be an emergency, and that slows everything down, from creativity to your immune system."

 The flip-side of that is when you’re an enabler, you also tend to attract people who want enabling. They obstruct your boundaries, lean on you, and ask you for help in an almost parasitic way

 

Tough love is loving, but enabling is not.

Now there are two schools of thought on this topic so to be fair, I’ll present them both and let you decide for yourself (though my stance is made clear in the subtitle of this section).

It all boils down to how you see love, which likely has to do with how you were made to feel loved.

Enabling:

You stand by the person no matter what, because you care too much to see them suffer needlessly. Why add to their problems? You lend them a bit of money, or give them a place to stay, or ignore the fight you had the other night because it’s not a big deal and you care about them. Why start a fight?

Even when they’re having a rough go, you stand by them — through thick and thin. You lift them up, remind them of their worth, and tell them how much you want them to get/do better, because that’s what you do when you love someone. You never abandon them, no matter what.

Tough Love:

You make it clear you care for them but do not agree with their behavior. When they repeatedly disrespect your boundaries, you cut them off financially or tell them to find a new place to stay. You address their inappropriate actions, no matter how uncomfortable it makes them (or you) feel.

You know life has been tough for them lately, but you also know that life won’t get any easier if things don’t change. You realize that all the chaos that’s ensuing in their life is a result of their choices and that only by taking responsibility for these choices will the person begin to see their part.

You also acknowledge that some people, especially those who are needy or in the active spin of addiction, will likely try anything to get you to enable them. This includes lying. Just because you love them, doesn’t mean you have to believe them (or pretend to).

 

 

 Belt and braces approach

'We are not a papers-carrying country.'