A Hint of Guilt.

There was a pretty nasty storm in southern England today. It resulted in four deaths, all caused directly or indirectly by falling trees. The national news showed photographs of the victims, which is unusual. It’s usual for them to show pictures of murder victims, but rarely the victims of accident. And it means that in order to get those pictures, they must have approached the friends and/or family of the deceased within hours of the event, which struck me as being a little short on sensitivity. What a way to get your fifteen minutes of fame.

What I think I should be most disturbed about, though, is the fact that my greatest shudders of horror came as a result of seeing amateur footage of falling trees. The late Arthur Guirdham talked of his horror at seeing trees being felled in his book The Lake and the Castle. In his case, he claimed it to be due to memories of a past life as a Cathar. What it is in my case, I’m not sure that I know.