Embarking on yet another learning curve...

Wrote this in 2012

So after much procrastination I finally chose the Philosophy Masters.  Why not Literature or the English Language? Or indeed the psychology I love so much?

There is no short answer.  I have been philosophising since I was about 12, always questioning the way things are, why things are the way they are, and wondering how we can change the bad things.  I rambled around reading books and trying to find answers, always expecting that there would be someone who knew the answers to my very perplexing questions.  It's taken me a long time to discover that there seems to be no single truth when it comes to some questions, only debates and arguments.

Now, I like a good argument, as anyone who has seen my brother and I debating politics would agree. I feel very passionate about certain things: in a way I believe I have never really grown up, never matured to the extent that I can accept things just the way they are.  I still, naively some would say, believe that human beings are inherently good. The humanist in me believes that we must have evolved a social conscience and that we sometimes lose it occasionally in the moment of living.  I still have what some would call a childish belief in the good of human nature, yet I am confused by the irrational actions of many in power to subjugate some people and of others who exploit people for their own selfish ends.

So that, in a nutshell, is why I chose philosophy. I am looking for a more rational way to consider the many questions I have, as yet, to find answers for, indeed that there may be no answers to.  My worry is that in doing so I may uncover further questions that whet my appetite for knowledge about this world we have created. I also worry that this will change me, I think I actually like seeing myself as a simple soul who believes in the good nature of human beings - many things have happened in my life to challenge my assumptions but I have as yet fought off any pessimism that may arise from time to time.

I have created another blog that I will use to focus on my philosophical ramblings throughout the three year course that will deal with the course topics as they arise.  I intend to use it to brainstorm my thoughts on the topics before I actually consider what philosophers have argued.  I hope to end my naive meanderings and come to find my own sense of truth regarding people, justice and politics.

Catching up

Not written here for a while - but have started a new blog devoted to poetry! Been busy reading all George RR Martin's books again ready for the new book coming out next month. Tv programme about the first book "Game of Thrones" is also being shown on Sky Atlantic. Good series so far and fairly true to the books.

As I seem to do most of my online stuff by iPhone these days, I am trying to write this on the phone, so apologies if there are any typos!

Mam, San and me: grieving

One of very few photos I have of the three of us, my sister Sandra, my mam and me posing while Eddie takes a photie of the three of us in the back garden.


Brings back some sad memories as this was taken just after Steve, my brother died. I'm wearing my mam's clothes here - they are a little on the tight side!

Getting angry with the world, or angry with me?

Why, as I get older, am I turning into a cynic who is starting to believe that there are fewer people out there who care about improving the world than there are who are inherently selfish and self serving - at the cost of others?  Or, should I really be asking why did I believe, for so long, that there were more people than there seem to be who care about the world, but just don't know how to go about changing it?  What I am asking myself, I suppose, is why aren't there more people out there like myself?  But then that leads me to ask if I really care about the world as much as I think I do, or am I really fooling myself?

I once wrote a poem with the closing line: "Why do I ask so many bloody questions?"

Mr Snuffles

We've been adopted by a mangy moggy we have named Mr Snuffles.  He arrived starving, very thin, full of fleas, sniffing and snuffling with cat flu.  Poor mite couldn't smell anything and was either a stray or totally lost because his sense of smell had disappeared. 

He's made himself right at home and after a few visits to the vet's he is well on the mend and putting on weight rapidly. The vet has advised us to have him neutered, poor thing, and that will happen in two weeks time, after his vaccinations are done.

His sense of smell has returned and we thought he might make his way home, if he had a home, but he keeps returning for food and affection. We'd be totally gutted to lose him now as he has stolen our hearts totally!

This is his favourite place to sleep, which is good as it gives me a good excuse to lounge around occasionally!

Sadly, Mr Snuffles passed away this year (2018).  He brought us lots of love and happiness.  We will miss him very much 😢

Wasting Time

Wrote this in 2010. How things have changed in the world since then... 

Well, that's the school holidays finished and did I do anything I'd planned to do? No!  As usual...  I began a new Creative Writing course, did the first two hours of the thirty hour course then stopped.  I Studied A Level Philosophy curriculum to help some lovely people at school, but not in as much depth as I'd intended.  The weather stopped me doing as much in the garden as I'd wanted, but I could have done more.  I never got to County Sligo to unearth some family history, nor did I visit Wellington in Shropshire to do the same.

We did take Sarah and Ethan to Scarborough for a few days but never made Blackpool or Southport and didn't get to Diggerland!  Got to go to Diggerland before Ethan's obsessiveness ends!

Nice day in the garden for Ethan's birthday while his mum spent her birthday in London.  Tim's extending our back garden to help keep out weeds coming from the back field, hence the uplifted fence panel, but there's a steep drop down to the bank of the stream.  He's built me a staircase to heaven using old railway sleepers.  Bit tricky getting down there even with them!

I also had a great time with two old band mates Martin and Bill.  We are all proud owners of Martin guitars and I decided we should be called "The Three Martineers".  Wish I could play as well as they do, or sing as well as Martin does.  I can't even claim to be the beauty of the bunch :-)  A rose between two thorns I certainly am not. What do you think?  Please don't answer if you're not going to be kind.

The Three Martineers:

Mine's more shapely than the dreadnoughts owned by the boys. And mine is "diminished" by being an electro acoustic, something Martin believes should never have been produced by the great guitar brand!

And yes one of my intentions was to improve my playing by beginning to play every day for at least an hour - did I do it?  What do you think!

What I did do, which was not really on the planned agenda that failed, was to spend more time investigating the new atheism that is being attacked by many Americans. I listened to many of the debates on YouTube and have decided that I am a humanist.  But I don't want this to turn into another form of religion - more research to do on the topic I think.  Science has caused many problems albeit not as many as religion; but why do we always have to set things in opposition to each other?  The debate shouldn't be science versus religion, there are good and bad sides to both.  I hate fundamentalism in all forms and I believe it should be down to personal choice, not tradition, if one is to join a religion. 

Must stop getting on that soapbox!

In 2017 I now believe I should have got on it much sooner... 

Roy and Beattie cutting the cake

My mum and dad in September 1955 - a beautiful woman, sadly I look more like my dad 🤗