Thoughts about things I’ve written or read or heard or seen. An attempt to stay positive in a turbulent world.
Subscribe to the Column
Subscribe on Substack
Search the Column
Select
a Topic
Categories
Most Recent Articles
Shonaleigh Cumbers: Grief is Love with Nowhere to Go; and One Green Thing: clean aviation fuel
Shonaleigh Cumbers is a Drut’syla. To quote from here: She’s a living tradition holder. It’s a tradition you probably won’t have heard of. It’s a tradition that flourished in Jewish families, but that was wiped out during the holocaust. Almost wiped out. As far as we know, Shonaleigh is the last Drut’syla. Drut’syla is the Yiddish...Continue reading→
Stories for Children in Lockdown
At the beginning of April Yahoo set up a short story competition for stories to entertain children during the lockdown. Yesterday, 27 April, they announced the 20 shortlisted stories and mine, FLYING COLOURS, is one of them. The stories are now open to public vote (until 8 May) and if you’d like to vote for mine,...Continue reading→
Poems for these Coronavirus Times
Read by Christopher Eccleston, written by Matthew Kelly for his partner, Jill Scully, who is a district nurse. And here’s one from our poet laureate, Simon Armitage, which, as explained in this Guardian article, moves from the outbreak of bubonic plague in Eyam in the 17th century, when a bale of cloth from London brought fleas carrying...Continue reading→
Wise and kind words for the Coronavirus pandemic by Adrie Kusserow
This poem for these strange times is written by Adrie Kusserow after Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese : it speaks for itself. Mary Oliver for Corona Times, thoughts after the poem Wild Geese, by Adrie Kusserow, ethnographic poet You do not have to become totally zen, You do not have to use this isolation to make your marriage...Continue reading→
Can we ever know our parents as individuals? And One Green Thing: CLING FILM storage alternatives
This year my sisters and I had the family ciné films transferred to DVD and I’ve just watched them all. And as I watched the parts where we children didn’t feature, I wondered if it’s ever possible for children to know their parents as individual independent humans? And I came to the conclusion that it’s...Continue reading→
A Warming Valentine to the World (and vegan vogue)
A friend of mine told me about the speech Prince Charles made at this year’s Davos World Economic Forum who say, in their Mission Statement: We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change. The theme for January 2020 was...Continue reading→
Good news to begin 2020; Splosh! (to reduce plastic) and beautiful new year lights
So often good news doesn’t make the news, so here are a few good pieces of news to start 2020 with, from Future Crunch (where you’ll find 99 other good pieces of news, divided into categories). One of the founders of Future Crunch, Dr Angus Hervey, says: If we want to change the story of the human race...Continue reading→
A Vote for the Planet; a Christmas rose; and plant a tree for Christmas
By the time you read this we’ll know the result of the UK General Election and I hope with all my heart we’ll have voted for the planet above our membership (or not) of the EU, and everything else that matters so much. Because if we haven’t, where and how will our grandchildren live, no...Continue reading→
100 Novels That Shaped Our World; free travel with a book and One Green Thing
Four women and two men have just chosen 100 Novels That Shaped Our World. The choosers are: Stig Abell, editor of the Times Literary Supplement, Syima Aslam, founder of the Bradford Literature Festival, authors Juno Dawson, Kit de Waal and Alexander McCall Smith and journalist Mariella Frostrup. The 100 novels are divided into 10 categories: Identity; Love, Sex...Continue reading→
Greta Thunberg and climate change; There is No Planet B; Extinction Rebellion and solastalgia
On Friday 20 and Friday 27 September Global Climate Strikes took place across the world, inspired by Greta Thunberg who began her Friday school strikes in August 2018. She sat outside the Swedish Parliament to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis. The #FridaysforFuture movement has snowballed, as you must have noticed, into a...Continue reading→