Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire.

Is it me or does the world seem slightly madder than it was a few months ago? The boss men seem to be as thick as ever and we do nothing about them. Maybe they are mildly more intelligent than the rest of us and so we don't really notice. The people in charge don't seem to have any intelligence which allows them to carry out acts which the majority of people find positive. They are good at justifying their actions with bluster and obfuscation so that it sounds like they had no choice and that 'it was for our own good' rather than the reality which is that it is for their own good and their egos.

This minute, I have just read that Mary Hansen of Stereolab has been killed in a cycling accident (See here for BBC article). Rather than pithy words, an action which would have met the ideals of Mary's ethos would definitely be in order today and, as it says on the website, spin some lab vinyl tonight.

This has led me to thinking about how, the death of Mary Hansen, would for most people mean nothing. It is only because I like Stereolab and know the names of the band members, that it caught my eye. I suppose she counts among my list of ther Great and The Good but she would also register if she was on my dislike list as well. Do we all know too much about the world to stay sane or is it just that growing up and gaining responsibilities and duties means that we worry more about how things will turn out in the long run? I sometimes catch myself wondering what the world will be like after I am dead and trying to tell myself that it will not matter because I will be insensible to it. That does not work because I care now about my descendants, all of them and how the world will be for them. There are many things to worry about in the world at the moment and the worst of them are not the dangers of terrorism but of environmental impact. The great plagues of the middle ages and later, had a far more devastating affect on the world than anything I could dream of. In fact, until recently, just existing was painful enough for most people but to them it was normal. Are we getting into Zen here? Life is all pain and it is only by accepting that fact that you can rise above it and by so-doing stop the pain affecting you. As one of my colleagues says - deep breath and calm down.