Essays, observations and ideas to explore.
There is a difference between being relied upon and having no acceptable way to say no. From the outside, the two can look remarkably similar. Someone remembers the appointments, rearranges their working day, notices…
Read article →Illness makes a person dependent on decisions they may have very little power to influence. Someone else can authorise an appointment, recognise the urgency, or leave a request unanswered. When access to care rests…
Read article →A livelihood matters. So does being able to speak without fear. These needs belong to the same human life, although discussions about trade can make them sound like rival interests, with someone else expected…
Read article →A school closes because of flooding, and the consequences reach well beyond the school gate. Someone has to reconsider work, arrange care, decide what can wait. What looks like a change to the timetable…
Read article →A person seeking medical help already has something difficult to negotiate: how much of themselves to disclose. There may be an embarrassment to get past, a fear they have barely admitted to themselves, something…
Read article →A person should be able to earn a living without their work helping to sustain violence. That seems a modest expectation. Yet the phrase “conflict minerals” brings together two things we would ordinarily hope…
Read article →A warning arriving on a phone assumes quite a lot about the person holding it. That they understand what is happening. That they can leave if necessary. That someone who depends on them can…
Read article →People still have to get through Tuesday. Someone needs care, a difficult conversation cannot be postponed again, and the person who usually holds everything together is running out of energy. Public commitments enter lives…
Read article →An ordinary conversation needs a little room to be careless. We try out a thought, complain about work, say something badly and rely on the person opposite us to understand. If every sentence has…
Read article →A family waiting for someone to come home has a different relationship with time from the institution deciding whether that person may ever return. What passes through an office as a case can occupy…
Read article →A person can want company and still find the distance to another person too difficult to cross. We understand this when the obstacle is illness, or the loss of a bus service. It becomes…
Read article →There is a cost to having to explain, again, why you should be treated fairly. The explanation takes time. It may require a degree of composure that the person asking for it would struggle…
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