From the dust

I am lack­ing inspi­ra­tion in this week that is ded­i­cat­ed to unpack­ing box­es and fix the paper­work. Luck­i­ly, one of the things that came out of the box­es were our books. Think­ing about the for­mu­la that goes with Ash Wednes­day, I col­lect­ed some excerpts. Har­ry was just think­ing that all he need­ed was for Dumbledore’s …

The Selfless Gene (2)

What is the dif­fi­cul­ty about liv­ing with God and Dar­win? If we ask Dar­win him­self, he gives a clear answer in the quote above: Nat­ur­al selec­tion appears to be a process of waste, cru­el­ty, suf­fer­ing, and destruc­tion of the weak. Ich­neu­monidae are wasps that lay their eggs in the lar­vae of oth­er insects, after which …

A heart as loud as lions

Yes­ter­day was the birth­day of Chin­ua Achebe, a writer who died ear­li­er this year. In Gilling­ham we were just read­ing a book of his with the book club in the week of his decease. Today a pic­ture to com­mem­o­rate this lit­er­ary hero. The pub­li­ca­tion of Achebe’s book Things Fall Apart was a break­through in lit­er­a­ture, because …

A little garden

One of the most beau­ti­ful per­sons that Vic­tor Hugo describes in his book Les Mis­érables, is the Bish­op of Digne. This man spends his whole salary on the poor and the ill, and treats every per­son with­out prej­u­dice. The fol­low­ing pas­sage describes how every night he spends some hours in his gar­den before going to bed. …