corner, hazard, ageing

 A corner of old Tunbridge Wells - the of end of the short terrace called Belgrove, opposite The Grove Tavern. Thanks to this blackbird and several others, the tree is now stripped of its berries.

Life without hazards might  become boring. The ice which still covers the pavement in much of Mount Sion is  treacherous and keeps you awake; it drives most people to walk in the road, where they run the risk of being mown down by a car in preference to slipping and breaking a limb.

Aphorisms appeal to my idle nature because they are quick to absorb and tend to be self-sufficient requiring no prolonged concentration. The book that has given me most pleasure this Christmas is  the book of aphorisms  by Nassim Nicholas Taleb called The Bed of Procrustes. I like these in particular because they are on a theme which I can immediately relate to:  the way in which we tend to compress our words and ideas  about the world to fit a theory or a dogma, rather than to  to open our minds and vocabulary to the varying demands of what we are trying to describe, a much harder procedure. I quoted one of them in a post the other day. Here's another, which I personally find rather close to the knuckle, and therefore all the more true as far as I am concerned:  "The only objective definition of ageing is when a person starts to talk about ageing."