Thursday 16 November 2017

Annual attention ...

Our virtual world ramps up the opportunity for special attention once a year, by alerting our FB friends and others when our birthday arrives ... though, like most of our online life, we do have a role to play in supplying the information ... of course there are lots of ways to garner attention, with all the different emoticons with which to respond ... this often entails expressing an opinion on subjects we propose or by commenting on other folks' starters ...

This need for attention has been discussed before on here and indeed my recent birthday supplied some welcome greetings, though the exercise was met with equanimity ... my main concern was to acknowledge each greeting, being brought up to be polite .... interesting also to note comments from virtual and actual friends asking where I was currently wandering, indicating previous engagement with the blog, maybe the chapters boosted with FB posts ... or perhaps picking up telepathically current thoughts of wandering again and feeling rather trapped in the details of houses, like how to unlock the back door, how to pin down tradesmen to do the desired conversion work to make the place attractive for Airbnb guests or tenants ... how to summon up the enthusiasm for this project ...

The promised review of Rupert Sheldrake's new book "Science and Spiritual Practices" is underway ... nothing very deep to share, some reworking of his general themes about the limits of scientism and a moot point (if I may be so bold) on the merits of pilgrimages. Sheldrake is a patron of the British Pilgrimage Trust and proposes the principal point is the destination or destinations en route ... the holy places ... he is signed up to the Anglican version of Christianity, which may inform his view. Regular readers may recall I never saw any destination as key ... just the joy of the journey, whether on recognised pilgrim trails or other routes. Anyway, the book is light reading and with an engaging style ... if any local friends want to borrow it, just ask ...

Arriving at the ripe old age of 67 concentrates the mind somewhat ... elder daughter now at the age her mother bore her and ready for breeding herself ... younger one not interested at all in such a thing ... each to their own ... maybe a Grandfather role will suit sometime ... meanwhile the pilgrim role still calls ... Via de la Plata early Spring perhaps ... but first the mundane issues of the house, somewhat offset by persuading a local friend to play a project and property management role ... let's see!

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