Inconsolable loss
Of all the expressions of inconsolable loss I have read concerning the death of anyone greatly loved, the following lament by Henry James, the novelist, when his older brother, William James, the scientist and philosopher, died is one of the most heartfelt:
“I sit heavily stricken and in darkness – for from far aback in dimmest childhood he had been my Elder Brother; and I still, through all the years, saw in him, even as a small timorous boy yet, my protector, my backer, my authority and my pride.
Ian on Sunday
Experience comes to us not just through our lives but as much, perhaps more as we grow old, through reading.
Ian on Sunday
Why should flesh and blood men and women, with feet of clay like anyone else, presume to think for us and act for us and push us around and mollycoddle us and punish and reward us as if they were inherently superior beings?
‘No ill or wrong will overmaster this’
There are some things that keep out the darkness that continually threatens in anyone’s life.
The addiction of competition
And here is fascinating thought. Medical studies suggest that in situations of great stress, great danger, in a battle, for instance, with death a fraction away, the body is able to generate something akin to heroin.
A blessingPerhaps my oldest memory, I must have been two or three, is of my mother hugging me at night when she put me into bed and holding the palms of my hands together while she said a simple prayer which I soon learned by heart.
Ian on Sunday
Running anything – whether it is a national government, vast state industry, world-circling multi-national, small family business, or private club – involves making choices.
The view from seventy-six
With shocking quickness, another year has gone by in a blur and I am suddenly seventy-six.
Fulsome words, faltering deeds
One of the most serious aspects of life today is the widening gap between talk and action.
It is all a dreamMy father died nearly fourteen years ago at the age of 89.
Too many of my good friends are overwhelmed with work which prevents them living more peaceful, varied, interesting and fulfilled lives.
Ian on Sunday
When you go well past three score years and ten you are in overtime and a penalty shoot-out looms which you know you cannot win.
Ian on Sunday
In Guyana education some time ago deteriorated to the point where parents had little confidence that the formal system would or could produce results.
Faithful to the causeI venture to suggest that there is no West Indian cause so sacred as the success of the West Indies cricket team.
The overmighty centre
Any practical person in charge of anything periodically asks the question: ‘How do we get things done most effectively?’
The world is bankrupt. The Great Regulator in the Sky for some good reason has put His people everywhere into receivership and the impact will be more devastating and more universal than the Flood.
Leaders and language:
There is a close correlation between the inspiring use of language and getting great deeds done.
Anxiety grows in meLet me make another trawl in the deep sea of reading which lies all around us and see what bright catch comes up.
Personal performance is the key
Guyana is in a period of gloom, who can doubt it.
The love of reading lasts foreverThe year 2008 slipped by with devastating swiftness and already another year is well advanced.
