new

“…here in princeton at the end of the fall making sudokus of the
fragments of fallen leaves
and other mad things that we artists do on behalf of the sensible
people that get on with running the world….....”


During a recent correspondance with my Dad from his rather swish residency in the Centre for Advanced Studies in Princeton, it occurred to me that, as a wordsmith and a master documenter of minutae for the last fifty years, he could have been the Original Blogger .


When we were kids, we threw twenty darts at a map of our neighbourhood in South East London, and in those random landings 20 Sites n Years was born. My brother and I were encouraged (sometimes forced!) by both our parents to enjoy the humour in the apparently meaningless appearance and disappearence of a bollard, the miraculous growth of a violet in between two paving stones in Rye Lane or the beauty of a new rust stain on a drain cover, just as we were to explore a new sound on a prepared piano. No wonder, then, that two terra cotta soul-mates make me smile.

My ol’ man, now nearing seventy, is keeping up with the times, still finding beauty in the every day and documenting it. He has put up a blog, but is a bit shy. Currently he does not appear much in person. You have to scroll down to October 27 to hear his voice, but as someone who has received letters, faxes and now emails from him for forty years, I have no hesitation in suggesting, though still in its infancy, you watch this space .

Also check out his ongoing treatment of a Victorian novel - another would-be-blog that was born a half a century too early!

While I’m on the subject, another friend worth watching is The Irish Patient- a diva's perspective on taking care of her spouse who is recovering from cancer in the UK National Health system.