Please, J.K. Rowling, More Stories
“The Potter stories give me hope during what I consider to be rather dark times. Please – more stories. The world so desperately needs them.”
The Changing View of God’s Will – or Witches and Doctors and Priests, Oh My
“You have no power here! Begone! – before someone drops a house on you too!” Long, long ago there were healing women, women wise with the knowledge of herbs, of sound and smell and taste, of birthing and guidance and support. Their various mindsets are probably not ones that we can fully understand or inhabit today, although an undeniable hunger for their possible stories is evident in our fictions. History may be written by the winners, but speculative imagination is…
One Saturday Night Some Lyrics
Once in a while, I let it go. I have to, or my thoughts would consume me. Instead, I unhitch a million threads, and float… and drift. Before too long, a path waves toward me, but I prefer to explore. For that you need a dose of the random. Open possibility is too vertiginous, but play is a vector of freedom. Only a judicious, homeopathic dose of the random…such is the contemporary life. Why not play in a field of…
Interesting Developments in the ex-Jehovah’s Witness Community
I’m in regular contact with a number of other former Jehovah’s Witnesses around the world. Now that an entire community has built up, there is a lot of support at peer level. If you’re looking for feedback and stories from others there are a lot more resources now than the ones on my original list. Facebook has some good, smart, creative people who moderate discussions in the various groups – do a search. A good place to start is Jehovah’s…
Love Letter
Darling Sweetheart, You are my avid fellow feeling. My affection curiously clings to your passionate wish. My liking yearns to your heart. You are my wistful sympathy: my tender liking. Yours beautifully, M.U.C.* Even with such a designer as Turing, it takes more than imitation-games of consciousness to write a love letter. Still, isn’t there something about this letter that suggests our own, often inarticulate, longings? *In this instance, MADAM preferred to call herself M.U.C. (Manchester University Computer). I know…
And They All Look Just the Same
This one’s for Debbie, and you know why: Little Boxes, by Malvina Reynolds Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky tacky, Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes all the same. There’s a green one and a pink one And a blue one and a yellow one, And they’re all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same. And the people in the houses All went to the university, Where they were put…