Essays, observations and ideas to explore.
Being forced to move means losing some say over what happens next. Even the smallest plans depend on being able to stay somewhere long enough to carry them out. When that becomes uncertain, ordinary…
Read article →Someone worrying about next month’s rent should not have to become an economist before being entitled to speak about the economy. Yet being able to describe what is going wrong in your life does…
Read article →Leaving home can be the decision that keeps someone alive. It can also mean surrendering the place in which their life makes sense. We should be careful how easily we put the word ‘choice’…
Read article →There is a particular freedom in being able to leave something unfinished because you expect to be there tomorrow. A repair can wait until the weekend. A child can leave a drawing on the…
Read article →A family trying to plan its future needs something more dependable than a politician’s confidence. Children grow up while arguments remain unresolved. Work, relationships and the possibility of making a home all depend, to…
Read article →A place can be somebody’s home and somebody else’s cause. There is a considerable distance between those two relationships. The person who lives there cannot put it away when the evening is over. That…
Read article →A girl asked to give up school has to live with a decision that other people may find quite easy to explain. There will be reasons, perhaps presented as necessities. Yet the person whose…
Read article →There is a difficult obligation in helping a boy who feels rejected: taking his hurt seriously while refusing to let it become an accusation against women. Hurt deserves attention. It does not confer a…
Read article →It is easier to care about a person facing execution if we can first persuade ourselves that they are innocent. The difficulty begins when we cannot. Then we have to decide whether our concern…
Read article →When essential help depends on a delivery being able to get through, the calendar acquires a different meaning. Friday may be an ordinary working day elsewhere. For anyone waiting for assistance, it can become…
Read article →A parent needs to trust the person driving their child to school. A driver needs to know that their work will be judged fairly. Neither expectation is unreasonable, yet in a dispute involving gender…
Read article →There is a particular cruelty in being allowed to imagine a life while being denied the authority to pursue it. You can have ambitions, abilities, people who depend on you. Yet someone else claims…
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