The things we keep for a life we no longer live
There is a particular sort of cupboard that tells the truth about a household.
Read article →Articles & Writing
Essays, observations and ideas to explore.
Public Interest Must Leave Room for People to Answer Back
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 →Paid Companionship Should Not Become an Excuse for Absence
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 →Paid Companionship Does Not Settle What We Owe Each Other
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…
Read article →Pain Can Shape Judgement Without Disqualifying the Witness
Someone who has suffered may speak with anger. They may return to details that other people would rather move past. Listening can be uncomfortable, especially when their account unsettles something we had accepted as…
Read article →The strange loneliness of being permanently connected
A constant stream of messages can coexist with a shortage of genuine company.
Read article →When did having enough become a difficult idea?
We are encouraged to want more, but rarely to decide what enough would look like.
Read article →When Taking Part Costs More Than Someone Can Afford
An invitation can be perfectly sincere and still leave someone outside. A meal, a family celebration, a chance to meet after work: each may carry a price that nobody mentions because most of those…
Read article →Children’s Rights Must Survive the Inconvenience of Being Heard
A child can be loved and still have very little say in the life being arranged around them. Adults make decisions about home, school, care and discipline, often with good intentions. Yet good intentions…
Read article →Children Should Not Have to Protect the Family’s Reputation
A child who speaks about violence at home may be asking adults to disturb a life they have worked hard to keep intact. There are relationships, loyalties, perhaps someone everybody likes. Taking the child…
Read article →We Cannot Leave Preparedness Entirely to the People Growing Our Food
A family cannot prepare its meals independently of the people who grow the ingredients. Yet it is easy to live as though that dependence begins at the supermarket door, where food arrives clean, priced…
Read article →Standing Firm Requires Knowing What You Are Defending
When a political argument reaches the family table, the people sitting around it rarely arrive as neatly defined positions. Someone hears a demand for justice. Someone else hears a threat to people they love.…
Read article →