The only drawback to opting out of the news, as I’ve just done for three weeks, is that dropping back in again has prompted a worrying sense of futility about my life-long obsession with it.… Read the rest
As I write this, I’m looking out across a (thankfully) gently rolling gray expanse of the North Atlantic. It’s strange to see an unbroken horizon after a week of cruising among the icebergs and daunting cliffs of islands in the Canadian High Arctic.… Read the rest
“Greenland is Nature’s reminder of its utter indifference to humankind”. I have no idea of who said that, but a week of cruising and visiting small villages along a coastline that truly merits the much overworked adjective “awesome” has given me reason to celebrate it.… Read the rest
The subtle ways Nature signals the inexorable reality of change, are useful lessons for anyone trying to sort out, or at least cope with the messy world of humanity before it’s too late.… Read the rest
A few days ago, I pointed my kayak into a gusting north wind kicking up a lot of chop. I can’t put a dollar sign on what the effort was worth to me, which makes me wonder how monetary values are assigned to things with no quantifiable or practical value.… Read the rest
It’s endured for more than 200 years, but Benjamin Franklin’s adage “Nothing is certain except death and taxes” must now be amended. Today, the certainty includes brain-mugging loud music, and adverts for anti-aging supplements,… Read the rest
Nature has an unrivalled ability to still the depressing chorus of affronts to our intelligence by politics, and to the English language by those who bring the transgressions to our attention. It also gifts us metaphors for humanity’s foibles.… Read the rest
“Weird” being the political buzzword of the moment, here’s my weird connection of the week: adults with the mindset of small children in the money business, and those with only money on their minds in the news business.… Read the rest
As is so often the case in the strum und drang of politics, the cry that the U.S. presidential election is about the “future of democracy” perversely both emphasises and hides another serious matter; a national identity crisis.… Read the rest
Trying to cut through and parse the rhetorical bedlam of current U.S. politics can be taxing to the point of painful. A useful tool is the advice a dear departed friend, who read voraciously and talked volubly, proffered whenever I lost track of what she was on about: “Listen to what I mean, not to what I say.”… Read the rest