Author: stevendouglasblog

Born in 1954. Chequered career including Lecturer in English, Social Worker and Lecturer in Social Work. Had breaks related to mental health that also meant I worked in social care. Now retired.

Never let ‘ the good minute’ go. Find a thing to do and do it. The importance of not acting on desire.

October 15, 2023

What have you been putting off doing? Why? When I puzzle about an issue in my life I often turn to poetry for help. We live in a world where time is literally money and action matters more than reflection, which is too often considered passive. It is as if clichés like ‘time waits for … More Never let ‘ the good minute’ go. Find a thing to do and do it. The importance of not acting on desire.

A blog intended to offer a brief and inadequate overview and taste of the new Faith Museum at the Bishop’s Palace in Bishop Auckland without offering knowledge or interpretive skill.

October 15, 2023

A blog intended to offer a brief and inadequate overview and taste of the new Faith Museum at the Bishop’s Palace in Bishop Auckland without offering knowledge or interpretive skill. The Faith Museum from the entrance to the Bishop’s Park at Bishop Auckland: A kind of Tardis offering an overview of faith and belief in … More A blog intended to offer a brief and inadequate overview and taste of the new Faith Museum at the Bishop’s Palace in Bishop Auckland without offering knowledge or interpretive skill.

To be adult or not to be? That is, in truth, not a question.

October 14, 2023

To be ‘grown up’ names, apparently at least, the end of a process of ‘growing up’ and like all ideologies buried in common terms, it assumes a teleology, in brief (though see the Wikipedia definition at the link by all means) a teleological process is defined by its outcomes and / or its purpose. If … More To be adult or not to be? That is, in truth, not a question.

This blog  is a sequel to seeing Lemn Sissay’s ‘Kafka’s Metamorphosis’, an adaptation, retelling (and more) in a new dramatisation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis with the company Frantic Assembly. I saw it at York Theatre Royal.

October 13, 2023

This blog  is a sequel to seeing Lemn Sissay’s Kafka’s Metamorphosis, an adaptation, retelling (and more) in a new dramatisation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis with the company Frantic Assembly. I saw it at York Theatre Royal on Thursday October 12th at 2.00 p.m. In my earlier blog on this play, I previewed my expectations of the … More This blog  is a sequel to seeing Lemn Sissay’s ‘Kafka’s Metamorphosis’, an adaptation, retelling (and more) in a new dramatisation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis with the company Frantic Assembly. I saw it at York Theatre Royal.

‘I know both what I want and what might gain, / And yet how profitless to know’. A blog on the importance of your ‘reach’ exceeding your ‘grasp’.

October 12, 2023

Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for? All is silver-grey, Placid and perfect with my art: the worse! I know both what I want and what might gain, And yet how profitless to know, to sigh “Had I been two, another and myself, “Our head would have o’erlooked … More ‘I know both what I want and what might gain, / And yet how profitless to know’. A blog on the importance of your ‘reach’ exceeding your ‘grasp’.

Alcohol promises to enhance your life. In fact, it impairs the internal biochemical machinery with which to choose life as your primary goal. I decided to live clean of it. That machinery does repair.

October 11, 2023

What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself? To tell a story about giving up alcohol as a means of embracing life ought to be a humbling experience for the amount of self-congratulation for having made that choice needs the perspective of stories of people for whom this choice was both starker in … More Alcohol promises to enhance your life. In fact, it impairs the internal biochemical machinery with which to choose life as your primary goal. I decided to live clean of it. That machinery does repair.

If I love art, why do I find this an impossible question to answer?

October 10, 2023

Who are your favorite artists? Cooking is an art in which I do not excel. This picture irrelevant to the blog, although this was once my favourite artwork. The joke was devised by my room-mates in the 1970s at university. Art is a big part of my life and it is not as a maker … More If I love art, why do I find this an impossible question to answer?

‘The Fugitives’ (1962) by John Broderick tells stories of people who flit around at the margins of a world they resist and would like to change: ‘A world in which death slipped easily, like one of those midland corner-boys edging through a pub door, dead of foot, buried of hand, mortified of mind; a familiar sight. / It was a waiting world. … Something indefinable, far back in their blood, derived from the flat passive fields that bred them, told them to wait’.

October 9, 2023

The Fugitives (1962) by John Broderick tells stories of people who flit around at the margins of a world they resist and would like to change: ‘A world in which death slipped easily, like one of those midland corner-boys edging through a pub door, dead of foot, buried of hand, mortified of mind; a familiar … More ‘The Fugitives’ (1962) by John Broderick tells stories of people who flit around at the margins of a world they resist and would like to change: ‘A world in which death slipped easily, like one of those midland corner-boys edging through a pub door, dead of foot, buried of hand, mortified of mind; a familiar sight. / It was a waiting world. … Something indefinable, far back in their blood, derived from the flat passive fields that bred them, told them to wait’.

Passing time is no trivial thing: how to respond to the ‘uncertainty of one’s existence’.

October 9, 2023

What is your favorite hobby or pastime? In a neglected novel called The Fugitives by John Broderick, he writes: But just as people will live on in houses demolished by a bomb, going through the ritual movements of everyday life; so Lily adapted herself to the uncertainty of her existence’. This is probably a strong … More Passing time is no trivial thing: how to respond to the ‘uncertainty of one’s existence’.

‘It was this detachment, even more than his facelessness and the white coiling hand, that made Mrs Whitaker linger …’. Can it be that a novel and an artist can get forgotten even though they write at least one novel that is, in the words of David Norris, ‘in particular a masterpiece’.

October 7, 2023

‘It was this detachment, even more than his facelessness and the white coiling hand, that made Mrs Whitaker linger … / Suddenly Mrs Whitaker caught her breath. The white hand, so strangely contrasted with such coarse clothes, stopped twisting the button and reached out towards her. But the man was not beckoning. He was holding … More ‘It was this detachment, even more than his facelessness and the white coiling hand, that made Mrs Whitaker linger …’. Can it be that a novel and an artist can get forgotten even though they write at least one novel that is, in the words of David Norris, ‘in particular a masterpiece’.