It’s an old choice, but one of which I would like to remind people. I’ve just finished my evening trawl through Facebook, and it is disturbing to see just how many people appear to believe that the best use they can make of contemporary means of communication is to rail about the iniquity of either Donald Trump or Theresa May. I have no time for either of them, but deserving as they might be of criticism the world will not be changed very much by people telling somebody else they believe already shares their views, just what they think about events neither of them can shape or persons they cannot influence.
I am well aware that my small contribution to addressing the problem of homelessness constitutes the lighting of a very insignificant candle, viewed from the standpoint of the immense darkness of the world’s problems. Nevertheless, I’m glad that this is what I have done. Thirteen people were fed, and had a good night’s sleep in safety. Thirteen people had sympathetic and supportive contact with other folk, who didn’t know them but acknowledged that they had needs to be addressed. I have no means of knowing whether, in the longer term, my actions might have other consequences. That’s OK.
I don’t know whether it constitutes “lighting a candle” or not, but I started something today I have not done for a while. I began to write. This is the part of the academic life I enjoyed the most, and was the last element of it I gave up when I retired. Nevertheless, I found that it requires a very different mental frame from painting. So I don’t often attempt to do it with any sense of its significance. Writing this blog is usually the most ambitious literary task I do. For some reason, however, this afternoon I started to put some thoughts in order which might possibly develop into something more substantial later on. I hope to goodness that it doesn’t interfere with the painting, just as I’m getting to the point when I believe that I might do something interesting.