Felt optimistic and full of beans on Friday morning. Went out for lunch to celebrate Marcella's birthday in Browns in Barnes. Star spotted former England and Arsenal football star Tony Adams. Trailed back over Hammersmith Bridge and into a typical Friday afternoon agency panic. Then lurked about after work drinking. Home to Mrs Kenny and the usual Friday night curry.
Today I've been unable to relax. Not been able to apply myself to any writing or sorting out the ezine. Eventually I gave up and had another enjoyable walk around Kew Gardens. It's an aborbing place and I always seem to see something new there. Because of the variety of planting and trees it reminds me of other places when I walk around. Felt a bit strange and on the edge of depression but have pulled back from the brink thanks to eyefuls of flowers and gardens and birds and waterfowl.
Have re-read all the CS Lewis books lately. Which is probably why a part of Kew Gardens made me imagine Narnia. Quite interesting reading A Horse and His Boy, and The Last Battle again at this time. Opposing Narnia is Calormen, populated by a dark skinned southern race who worship an evil god called Tash (a manifestation of the devil), instead of Aslan like "proper" fair skinned Narnians. When you read the book you see that Calormen is clearly meant to be Islam, and it is interesting to read this in the current political context. In The Last Battle when Narnia is destroyed and they all go to heaven, one decent man from Calormen is saved.
The religious dimension is so clear in the Narnia books, but when I read them as a child I don't think I understood this. Despite my reservations about the books' racism and not being a Christian I still found the end of The Last Battle moving. I had not remembered the last (oddly punctuated) sentence at all.
"All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."
Today I've been unable to relax. Not been able to apply myself to any writing or sorting out the ezine. Eventually I gave up and had another enjoyable walk around Kew Gardens. It's an aborbing place and I always seem to see something new there. Because of the variety of planting and trees it reminds me of other places when I walk around. Felt a bit strange and on the edge of depression but have pulled back from the brink thanks to eyefuls of flowers and gardens and birds and waterfowl.
Have re-read all the CS Lewis books lately. Which is probably why a part of Kew Gardens made me imagine Narnia. Quite interesting reading A Horse and His Boy, and The Last Battle again at this time. Opposing Narnia is Calormen, populated by a dark skinned southern race who worship an evil god called Tash (a manifestation of the devil), instead of Aslan like "proper" fair skinned Narnians. When you read the book you see that Calormen is clearly meant to be Islam, and it is interesting to read this in the current political context. In The Last Battle when Narnia is destroyed and they all go to heaven, one decent man from Calormen is saved.
The religious dimension is so clear in the Narnia books, but when I read them as a child I don't think I understood this. Despite my reservations about the books' racism and not being a Christian I still found the end of The Last Battle moving. I had not remembered the last (oddly punctuated) sentence at all.
"All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."
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