A Conversation I Often Have With Myself

And with the cheapness of books,
and their richness compared with other media,
the central point of view is the perspective
I always return to...

 

Meanwhile In Germany In 1936... (1)

Thursday 13th August 1936

'The Olympics will end next Sunday, the NSDAP* Party Rally is being heralded, an explosion is imminent, and naturally, they first of all take things out on the Jews. So much pressure has built up. The Gustlolff trial is coming up in September; the Danzig business has only been postponed, out Polish 'allies' have made the french general Gameiln a marshal, Mussolini has pocketed Abyssinia scot-free - and the Spanish Civil War has been under way for a couple of weeks. In Barcelona four Germans have been 'murdered' as martyrs of National Socialism by s revolutionary court, and even before that, they were saying the German-Jewish emigres were stirring up hatred against Germany there. God knows what will come of it all, but surely and as always new measures against the Jews. I do not believe that we shall keep our house...

The political aspect changes almost daily , it would be tremendous interesting, if it were not so dismal. The third Napoleon began his war of desperation over Spain but how much of an analogy is there? I hear repeatedly, the last time from Forbig, the teacher: Hitler really wants peace for another one or two years, because  our armaments ar not ready before then. But Mr Leon Blum cannot be ignorant of what every child in Germany knows. Are they so stupid in France that they're just waiting to be lead to the slaughter? But: Why have they taken everything lying down so far? In France from Germany, in England from Italy? Everything is completely opaque and dark. Probably no one, not even government, knows the real strengths, the checks and moods.'.

An excerpt from 'I Shall Bear Witness-The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1933-1941' first published in German in 1995, translated into English by Martin Chalmers 1998.

For the second selection from Victor Klemperers diary please left click here. 

*in German Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterparte a/k/a The Nazis, or the National Socialist Workers party.          

Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

I was raised in an age of thrift
and the gender apartheid of strict roles 
when, by custom, married women
were banned from paid employment,
by employers. who reasoned that in marriage
women were chattels of their husbands,
and should not want a life beyond chattel-dom;
the husband was provider for both of them.

Their husbands did not always think that way.
In a good marriage the husband brought home
the wage packet for it to be opened
in the wife's presence, they both put
the house first, and what was left
the husband kept to keep up with his mates.

In a bad marriage The wife never knew 
what the husband earned, and kept to himself
he gave her a certain amount of money,
gave her instructions that were often impossible
to follow and kept his own assumptions
of how he spent his own money to himself.

Such men often complained, at volume,
in front of friends and family, about
how other's mis-spent their wealth
and lived beyond their means-
as if they were incapable of such a thing.

The theory went that having little,
and a lot to make money cover
made women use money better
than they might if they given more
having less stopped the women
wasting any of it on frivolities.

Whereas what men did with money
always seemed vital, and above questioning
even by other, similar and higher status, males.

Such men paid faint and feigned lip service
to any sense of democratic accountability,
and always think that dictatorships worked best
-systems where self belief at others' expense
always masks incompetence.   
 

Signs Of Greater Age (57)

With communications technology
every new advance in the devices
for the home allow consumers
to complete more tasks from home,
and complete them faster,
and complete them in transit
for those who are travelling.

But as a person of a certain age
you prefer the life where one piece
of electronic kit did not do everything,
different devices do different things,
and you would like to have some
human interactions as part of the deal.

We can adapt to many changes
from our end of the chains of supply
and demand, but increased isolation
is not the way to a brighter older age.

And by the, yes, we will repeat ourselves...   

Suggestibility Comes In Many Forms

Of course you may be be intelligent and cultured
without stroking your chin and have no need to think
about appearances, as for me personally
I prefer to play with my moustache.
In the end this is just a mildly sarcastic advert.  

 

In Dust I Trust

I feel affirmed every time
I return from leaving my house
when I sense once again
how in my limited untidiness
my house smells of dust
and other natural odours.

I could be more tidy
but who would it be for?
So few people visit me
and I don't blame them,
I would not want to visit
a tidy me either, tidied away
I would not know who he was
and what he had to live for.
   

Picture Set Of The Month - September - Worn Breakers On The Beach

I took these picture in late spring 2023
when I needed a walk and my camera was my company.

Most visitors to the beach would not notice
these figures, they are nearly all just a few inches tall.  

But their shapes, worn and shaped by the water,
was what drew me towards them,
I thought the textures were other worldly. 

This end of the beach, at Newcastle Co Down
is not that popular anyway, which increased my delight.

I thought of the figures as abstract representations
of characters from 'Alice in Wonderland'.