So don’t ask if I want ‘security or adventure’! It is a loaded question, as I hope to show here.

The prompt question today recalls the phrase used in English, ‘May you live in interesting times’? It is known, without much supporting evidence as the “Chinese curse“. In the LibQuote above, it is attributed in longer form to Robert Kennedy, and he elaborates it in seeing turbulence in history as the more interesting option. In … More So don’t ask if I want ‘security or adventure’! It is a loaded question, as I hope to show here.

Neuroscientists insist that we cannot, as individuals know the future, or the past, without assembling, and reassembling it, in the hippocampus. Is that why we need each other to make it real.

What are you most excited about for the future? Last night I saw the play Mnemonic at the National Theatre. I was intending to blog on it, but today is too full to allow it – with exhibitions on Michelangelo and the Expressionists to see with a dear friend, Catherine. This blog will be somewhat … More Neuroscientists insist that we cannot, as individuals know the future, or the past, without assembling, and reassembling it, in the hippocampus. Is that why we need each other to make it real.

Gently into goodnight

What time do you go to bed and wake up currently? Rounded in routine,darkness visibleEats up our nights,and charges up each dayWith residues of power; gets us throughTomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow, The time left until our last long goodnight,When all we have left is the mournings past. Is our dear friend dieing?I dare not think of … More Gently into goodnight

Support me with your strength to make me stronger, the rest is the verbal equivalent of cotton wool

What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life? The etymology, at least, of the word ‘comfort’ is clear. ‘With strength’ is the term that indicates that a stronger person or other entity such as a state, a church, or a loving group of lower formality lends its strength to someone or … More Support me with your strength to make me stronger, the rest is the verbal equivalent of cotton wool

Beyond ‘genre’, liking and favourites: I think understanding what isn’t already in my culture is my priority : a blog based on Judith Chernaik’s (2018) ‘SCHUMANN: The Faces and the Masks’.

Beyond ‘genre’, liking and favourites: understanding what isn’t already in your culture is the priority. This blog is a plan to repair a small corner of the tatters of my ignorance of and feel I have some way of understanding the life of Schumann without neglecting the music. This is a blog based on Judith … More Beyond ‘genre’, liking and favourites: I think understanding what isn’t already in my culture is my priority : a blog based on Judith Chernaik’s (2018) ‘SCHUMANN: The Faces and the Masks’.

The fragile harmony of consonance without intervals of dissonance. In praise of the role of conflict.

Ernst Krenek‘s classification, from ‘Studies in Counterpoint’ (1940), of a triad’s overall consonance or dissonance through the consonance or dissonance of the three intervals contained within. Created by Hyacinth (talk) 17:07, 25 September 2010 using Sibelius 5. We can’t get far with this question without reference to music (and I am hampered by a total ignorance of musical … More The fragile harmony of consonance without intervals of dissonance. In praise of the role of conflict.

Ageing on its own makes nothing better; if anything, it makes it much more difficult, and in more than one way, ‘harder’ to achieve authenticity as a person aiming for ‘a way to the Better’.

Currently, I am reading the five volumes of Leonard Woolf’s autobiography. I am on the third crucial volume in which his concern for the oncoming suicide of his wife Virginia is first talked about and explanations that as they increase still don’t suffice to accumulate more than genuine understanding of that tortured, but infinitely great, … More Ageing on its own makes nothing better; if anything, it makes it much more difficult, and in more than one way, ‘harder’ to achieve authenticity as a person aiming for ‘a way to the Better’.

Learning to be grateful: ‘teach me to see it, to see it / with you, and to offer somebody / uncomprehending, impudent thanks’.

I found I had nothing to say to this question and I looked for something where someone had something to say. We look for soothsayers and truth-tellers. We need help most to say that we have experienced that which we lack. We feel most the lack of something to feel grateful for, for we cannot … More Learning to be grateful: ‘teach me to see it, to see it / with you, and to offer somebody / uncomprehending, impudent thanks’.

‘Where It was, I shall be’: occupying the future.

What are you most worried about for the future? ‘Wo Es war, soll Ich werden‘ is one of the most famous summaries of the role of psychoanalytic treatment by Sigmund Freud and in the James Strachey Standard Edition in English of the works of Freud is translated as “Where id was, there ego shall be.”, It … More ‘Where It was, I shall be’: occupying the future.

A great teacher must be a great learner, for a great teacher facilitates learning and teaching everywhere, including in themselves and their great learners.

Most teachers are not ‘great teachers’, or not yet great teachers, because most teachers feel they are, or desire to be, satisfied by being seen as a teacher and that alone, their boundaries strengthened by borrowed authority. They borrow this authority from the role description of the teacher – a description of what a teacher … More A great teacher must be a great learner, for a great teacher facilitates learning and teaching everywhere, including in themselves and their great learners.

‘Blogging is a ‘daily habit’ that is justified by the humdrum habitual experience it makes you see anew ?

What are your daily habits? I took up blogging in response to a course I took with The Open University in 2015 called Technology-enhanced learning as part of a MA in Open and Distance Learning. Sceptical at first, I persevered with its encouragement to use available technologies, even ones not primarily geared to that end, such as social … More ‘Blogging is a ‘daily habit’ that is justified by the humdrum habitual experience it makes you see anew ?