When I was a kid, we rode bikes, rowed small boats, climbed trees, worked in the garden that surrounded the farmhouse, worked among the thirty acres of apples, bult dams in the creek, chopped wood, watched, and sometimes helped, as Dad built things, like the house we lived in, a twenty-foot launch, a shed, and … Continue reading When I was a kid ….
Denial is ugly and stupid
As we now know because people have been studying such things for a couple of decades, in any large office we can expect to find a number of disturbed humans per one hundred of the species. Among the one hundred we might find at least one serious narcissist, a psychopath, a sociopath, a pathological liar, … Continue reading Denial is ugly and stupid
December 25
Yes, life is short, but you don’t have to rush it.
The fruit if you labour
Volunteer fruit pickers on a kibbutz, Israel 1974, time of crisis, battle still raging on Golan Heights and regular skirmishes in the Sinai. What is it about a crisis that people do not seem to understand? (I apologise in advance if, in any way, this rant offends you.) And when I write people, I am … Continue reading The fruit if you labour
The Great Rigger
Cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz on satire in a time of Donald Trump. As I watched the US presidential election unfold, as though he was my president, I asked myself why? Why not the same attention paid to the Chinese, Russian, Indian, Turkish, German, French leadership elections. Well, some of them are fake processes. As one Egyptian … Continue reading The Great Rigger
Finally, a kind of book launch thing
Been a strange few months, in many ways good and bad.If, like us, you have friends all over the planet, then you know horror stories.But now, it's come to this, and part of me is not yet ready because it still seems a bit selfish to celebrate something you have done while friends and cousins … Continue reading Finally, a kind of book launch thing
Reviews – small and casual
Just finished. I went through every emotion. Anger, Acceptance, Sadness, Envy, Understanding, Pride at knowing Jack the man. The list goes on and then I cried when I finished the book. I so wanted to have you sitting next to me as I read the book. Thank you, Jon, for opening my eyes. Such a journey: individual … Continue reading Reviews – small and casual
Men of the Iron
Here's a piece I wrote some time ago, but thought I'd revisit it after meeting a chap who loves to iron. And do housework. What a man! I’m not alone. There are other men like me. Men who love ironing. We meet, surreptitiously, suspiciously and sometimes out in the open. We talk in quiet, subdued … Continue reading Men of the Iron
A Reading from Return Ticket
A Reading from To the Highlands
Page 1: https://youtu.be/TChfnUC7rxA