Noticed this old archway was clear of leaves and catching the winter sun in a nice way the other day.
Status:
I appear to be doing a few days of recovery, which I have to keep reminding myself is OK because I am in recovery and will be for the next few years. But despite being a year into accepting this I still can’t get over the feeling that I should be doing more than pottering, stretching and resting. Damn this productivity ethic I somehow got from somewhere.
I wasn’t at all surprised to get a response to yesterday’s idle speculation about the role of Quakers in the Temperance movement. Living in south Birmingham, and particularly so close to Bournville, one comes across Quakers in the same way residents of East Grinstead must come across Scientologists, only ours aren’t creepy and evil. I’ve always liked Quakers, both personally and spiritually, and count a few as good friends. After one sent me a couple of links about the Temperance question I asked:
Does Quaker = Temperance, or is it that some Quakers do Temperance, but not all? And what sort of proportion is it?
To which the answer was “yes”. It seems there are as many variations of Quakerism as there are Quakers. But one of the key tenets appears to be for abstinence and moderation, so many when the Temperance movement gained momentum many found it a cause worth supporting. Which is how the likes of the Cadbury family built their chocolate empires, promoting hot cocoa as an alternative to booze. These days the Friends Temperance Union has evolved into Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs.
I still find it curious that there was no mention of this in the In Our Time episode. Maybe they too got tied up in the minutia of it all and decided to skip it.
Overnight listening:
- In Our Time - The Gold Standard - a surprisingly boring subject.
- Dream Time
Music:
- Zu - Carboniferous - revisiting after a long while. Holds up. Now to catch up on their back catalogue…
Reading:
- Dance Our Way Out Of Our Constrictions: INTRO ’78 - Tom Ewing’s insanely comprehensive exegesis on the minutia of the comic 2000AD is back.
- The Little Movie That Couldn’t: Mallrats turns 30
Watching:
Jigsaws completed:
- Jackson Pollock’s Convergence - unauthorised, of course, and a terribly low-res reproduction, but it’s a nice way to spend time with a complex piece. Apparently it was a best-selling jigsaw in it’s time.
- Fungus fingers - from a fungi walk in 2001