Essays, observations and ideas to explore.
It is easier to agree that racism is wrong than to decide what standing beside someone should involve. Agreement asks very little of us while it remains private. Once we attach our name, our…
Read article →A fisherman ought to be able to go to work without having to become a symbol. There is something troubling about the point at which earning a living acquires the significance of defiance, however…
Read article →There are people who can explain their intended future with remarkable precision.
Read article →When someone brings us an account of harm, there is a tempting shortcut: decide what we think of the person speaking before troubling ourselves with what they have said. If we can dismiss them,…
Read article →For someone facing execution, another week is hardly an ordinary passage of time. For those outside the prison, it can disappear into work, meals, appointments and the small business of keeping a household going.…
Read article →It is difficult to plan a different life when tonight still needs sorting out. Where will you sleep? Can you stay there? Can the children? These are immediate questions, and they have a way…
Read article →Someone who loves motor racing may want to spend an afternoon watching it without being asked to answer for the country hosting it. That is an understandable wish. Leisure is one of the few…
Read article →An empty afternoon can make an otherwise sensible adult behave as though a crime has been committed.
Read article →There is a particular sort of cupboard that tells the truth about a household.
Read article →It is difficult to take responsibility for your life when the information you need is beyond your reach. A decision about work, a child’s education or the place you live may depend on something…
Read article →There is something uncomfortable about having to buy the company of another person. Part of that discomfort may belong to the person paying. Some of it ought to belong to those of us who…
Read article →There is something uncomfortable about paying someone to spend time with you. Yet some of that discomfort belongs to the people looking on. For the person facing another long afternoon alone, an arranged visit…
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