The little scar from my second vaccination is still visible high on my left arm, three weeks after the jab. Assorted grotty facemasks lurk in my every pocket. What next?
In the UK we are poised to ‘unlock’ at breathless speed. Given the potential for spawning new COVID variants that our racing infection rate has in spades, there are many who doubt the wisdom of this. If we are going to survive this next phase, there are surely some protections we have to cling to?
And as one government adviser wisely tweeted this week, this is not an ‘I’ thing, it is a ‘we’ thing. Now more than ever, we must take care of each other.
Talking of wee things – and people you must take care of – it was brought home to me this week that one of the purposes of having children – apart from ensuring you do not join the ranks of the complacent rich – is to continue your own education. This happens most maybe when the children are small; as has often been said, you discover the world all over again through tiny eyes. You don’t need your own children to do this obviously, you can borrow them, but the point is to spend time with those who have not yet seen the world and got bored with it, is a thrill.
Speaking for myself, raising small children produced a very timely shot of awe and wonder. Into my thirties when I first became a dad, I was – how can we put this – a bit ‘over’ nature and stuff. Now I began to re-engage with the natural world lead by my children’s burgeoning curiosities and own my unexpected urge to educate – and the world was made new. To explore, to explain, to find out together is a great, great, and valuable thing. Lots of adults become more childlike as parents, shrugging off the sense of indifference – the ‘been there, done that’ – that can creep over minds preoccupied with the adult business of getting by, getting on and making good – or at least working out where the stop-cock is when the kitchen floods.
Children, I find, also continue the education of parents long after the kids are adults. Phones are good at this too. So, the other day, faced with a weird looking insect I didn’t recognise I did what I always do – sent a picture to my Eldest. Within seconds the answer came back (he also has a phone – and a seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge about critters). The black and yellow segmented bug about a 7mm long and 5mm wide is, explained Eldest patiently, a ladybird larva. It will soon curl up into a ball, the segments will harden and form a shell, and that will house the wings and soon the creature will display the spots and unspots of every child’s first beetle.
So, there you go – out of the mouth of babes, as the good book has it, comes a lot of great knowledge, besides all the foul language.
I went out to have a look for my larva this morning. I found it, curled up on a nasturtium leaf, just as Eldest predicted. It is out there still, hardening as we speak. Perhaps the ladybird understands something we too could learn; if you want to fly, take it steady, and get protected. The little scar from my second vaccination is still visible, high on my left arm, three weeks on from the jab… assorted grotty facemasks infest my pockets…This is not an ‘I’ thing, it’s a ‘we’ thing…
And so we brace for flight…
If you are wondering where our second instalment of the Crib Notes Summer School has got to – along with our promised tips on the Ghazal – never fear. It will be posted next week, as we shift to a fortnightly posting across the summer. We’re backing this up with a new page on the main menu so that all the Crib Notes are archived as we go. So, if you haven’t got as far with your Sestina as you hoped, you can flip through to the Crib Notes tab in the menu, or spool back to Blog #57 – and you have a bit more time to work on it. Don’t forget to let us know how you find the notes – Useful? Confusing? Inspiring? Long? – and how you get on with your own Sestina.
Till next time, take care, and join us again at the wordcage for more from the Crib Notes Summer School.
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Till next time.
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