Random Jottings

I love this photo sent to me by my daughter in an e-mail. For those of you who don't know it is a display of coffee pods in the in the Nespresso World shop near where she works in London. For an addict of coffee like me it looks like a dream world! I hope I can get there one day.

 

 

The nature of female friendship

 

 A couple of days ago I read an article by Anne Chisholm who is a biographer and critic,  in which   she lamented  the fact that the release of the letters from Iris Murdoch to her friend the philosopher Philippa Foot had been greeted by the media with a range of sensationalised headlines claiming that the 60 year friendship between them was in fact a lesbian relationship.  The main culprit was of course the Daily Mail.  It is quite obvious from the letters that Iris and Philippa were very close friends, but,as Anne Chisholm  points out, there is absolutely no evidence that it was a physical relationship except for one brief episode where both women clearly decided it was not what they wanted.  The letters often speak of their love for one another. This  in no way indicates that there is is a physical relationship and I do not know what it is that prompts this sort of speculation  other than that normal ways that newspapers finds to sell themselves.  Speaking from my own experience I have a very close friend myself. She been my soul mate for nearly 30 years and I love her dearly. I now live abroad and she remains in the UK .  When we speak or write to each other we always at our conversations or cards and letters with the words I love you.I am happily married and have been for 37 years and she is happily married.  Nobody finds our behaviour strange! I must point out that I am in no way comparing myself with minds as brilliant as Murdoch and Foot! I merely wished to refute the suggestion that female friendship must always of a lesbian  nature.  

 

Iris

                                                                                           Philippa

 

 

If anyone wants to read the article it can be found at

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/sep/06/iris-murdoch-enduring-love-affa

 

 

Kitchen cabinet?

I am aware that I have not dealt with the Cabinet reshuffle carried out by our dear Prime Minister last week.  The reason for this is that I found it so incredibly uninteresting that I had nothing actually to say about it.   The only remotely interesting  thing was the dismissal of Justine Greening as Transport secretary as it will be interesting to see now if we finally get a third runway at Heathrow.

 

 

 

 

To believe or not to believe-that is indeed the question!

There was an article in the Guardian yesterday  prompted by (I am supposing )the sign on the side of the so-called "atheist bus ". This is the vehicle for a campaign being run by the British Humanist Association, an organisation which purports to represent "non-religious people in the UK who live their lives with integrity" (official website of the atheist campaign.org). The article is a complex argument in defence of faith and too detailed for me to analyse here. Suffice to say, that for me the most relevant part was the authors's experience in a cafe with a cappuccino and Mozart's clarinet concerto! Here he talks about the emotions he experienced whilst listening to the music . He  equates these emotions with his faith, or rather, with his beliefs.  I have to admit that I myself have been affected by music but I usually feel this as a spiritual experience rather than anything to do with religion.

This article is certainly worth a read whether you are "religious" or not.  Personally, I do not regard myself as such but neither do I define myself as "atheist". My feelings about religion are complex and do not need to be broadcast here. My only reason for mentioning this article is the drawing of attention to this so-called campaign by the BHA and the comments made in the article about it with which I entirely agree.

To read the article go to the Guardian website and search for Francis Spufford.

 Here we go again!

 Well they're back.  Barely had Cameron and co had time to brush the sand from between their toes  and the press were on them.Sunday morning and the papers already had it in for poor Nick Clegg, George Osborne,David Cameron and the rest.  With undisguised glee Andrew Marr (don't get me wrong I love Andrew Marr) showed the front pages of the newspapers with their usual mix of speculation and downright invention !  Today we have a Cabinet reshuffle - I wait with bated breath! More on this tomorrow.........