longtime no post

it has been a long hiatus, but with research, funding applications, administrative work at the college, conferences and what-not - not to mention trying to keep up with friends, exercise, run a household and take time off- - fer-God's-sake....

It's the same for everyone. Compared with the pace of life when I was a child - most people rush around as if chased by the Devil. If you have a job, you have to work too many hours and cover more ground than you feel comfortable with - if you have time to work it out. Nora Ephron said recently, there's no time for a gal to get laid, or words to that effect. I'm not surprised there are squads of singletons in London and SF, who cannot find mates. There isn't time to do so. Young marrieds with jobs and children must be the most stressed people in the world: when do they find time for themselves and a love life? I bet some will be quite relieved to lose those jobs and rediscover the other side of life. The trouble is, many will suffer worry and even homelessness as a result. The whole point of life is lost in the maelstrom of work : usually for someone else's profit. How few people there are at the top and how many scrabbling down below, desperately trying to make a living and/or move up the ladder.

I was watching a program on an unexplored volcano in New Guinea and life, for the animals living in one of the remotest parts of the world, exists on a plane we can scarcely imagine. It was only when I saw that the 'wild' animals had no fear of humans whatsoever, having never come into contact with them, that I began to feel apprehensive for them and even, in a wider context, for ourselves as a human race.