Yes, it is.  It is very strange but I am about to be reunited with an instrument that I have never really played but was so much the signature sound of the Delta Ladies. Vicky Played the variously named Candela/Chromatic Dulicima on so many of the Delta Ladies songs in the last few years. It has a very distinct sound and was left to me. It will be strange to see it again and the plan is to start playing it eventually all being well. Time will tell. It has not been played for 8 months so I hope it’s fit and healthy.

Christmas this year has been pretty bleak. Perhaps the new year has something to offer or perhaps not.

Wittgenstein Solves Philosophy

This year is drawing to a close. Its been hard work but we are still here. 
The last 6 months of the year has been mostly bad news in one way or another. 
Much has come to light that is deeply disturbing in so many ways.  The illusion that the UK is a tolerant society has finally been completely and utterly swept away it seems. 

No great surprise really other than perhaps my own foolishness in believing that most people would work for the greater good rather than inflict suffering on others out of petty jealousy and prejudices. The thugs now rule democratically elected with a mandate to destroy in part handed to them by the weakest in society who they will pick on first of course.

Also the lies and propaganda from what use to be trusted and reliable sources. Do you wonder how we have come to this? I certainly do.
Surely it can just be that people are inherently minded towards the darker side of life. I would rather hope not, but the evidence says otherwise.

From where I am standing it looks like the light has finally gone out.
Fundamentally then perhaps it is easier to believe a lie that fits your point of view than any sort of uncomfortable truth, regardless of how much evidence is presented to the contrary.

This year I have had to deal personally with some very restricted and small-minded individuals and it has I think brought me to a place where my tolerance is pretty much gone. I used to give people second and sometimes third chances in the mistaken belief that they would eventually come around to a more reasonable point of view. That position was incredibly naive. Sometimes  the best defense is to retreat or better still not engage at all.

I should like to say I have learned my lesson, but against that sort of deviousness, there is no really much defense. Some people’s lives are ruled by the principle that only by having power over others can they find any meaning for their own existence.

Of course, with some, it is simply the love of money and the power that brings. The full force of the law is still felt disproportionately by the poorest in society, much as it was when Dickens was writing his books.

Maybe, just maybe a corner will be turned we hope.