Everything remains drenched this campervan morning and the lightest of rain remains on the air. It’s persistence has left its mark everywhere. Drops cascade down from the oak on the merest suggestion of a breeze. It’s another wet morning. The wind buffets the trees, rattles leaves colouring the soundscape, joined by a couple of magpies in the ash chattering away and some distance crows. Gulls once again fly over calling, there is the sound far off of blackbirds and a pair of passing geese. There is a far off house alarm droning on and on, distracting me away from the sounds surrounding me. It is some distance away, but it’s piercing and overpowering. It takes some time to block it out. The sky is dark and rapidly moving overhead. I came across something yesterday around ‘quiet acts of kindness’, which seemed to connect to my earlier reading of Sontag and her words around kindness and courage. Susan Sontag also writes of compassion and the need for it to be translated into action or it “Withers away “. My thoughts are also drawn once again to Rebecca Solnit and her writing around people who come together, working in the shadows to make a difference, to change the status quo. The status quo created by vested interests and the ‘Monarchy of corporations ‘ that control it all. So my deepest thoughts this morning are around once again quiet acts of kindness, compassion, working in the shadows and the coming together of all three. Lovely days people.
“ Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question of what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. If one feels that there is nothing 'we' can do -- but who is that 'we'? -- and nothing 'they' can do either -- and who are 'they' -- then one starts to get bored, cynical, apathetic.” Susan Sontag.
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