Stream-of-Consciousness With Punctuation.

Bad day today. Too much despair at the badness in the human condition; too much anxiety over matters identified and unidentified; too much reluctance to carry on walking into whatever future I have left; too much discomfort from the cold east wind at twilight in what used to be referred to as ‘flaming June’ in dear old Blighty; too much eagerness to close the curtains so as to shut the world out. Taking refuge in reading old correspondence from once-valued people now gone.

Minor matters:

I found it ironic that the President of Russia should have responded to America’s promise to send longer range artillery to Ukraine with such a seemingly inept statement. He is reported to have said: ‘this will only fan the flames of war.’ Has he forgotten already that Russians have been sent to prison for calling it a war? And has he also forgotten who lit the fire in the first place?

Virginia Woolf’s description of Mrs Ramsey’s thoughts, responses, inclinations and desires in her novel To the Lighthouse are illuminating and make compelling reading. Mrs Ramsey is turning out to be the main character so far, and I gather she is closely based on Woolf’s own mother. If so, I would have loved to meet her. This book is a veritable cornucopia of insights, but it gives me a problem. The stream-of-consciousness writing style requires that every clause be read with full attention if the panoply of delights is to be extracted to the full. During the day my mind is too active for such a discipline, and late at night I’m simply too tired. It has to be read, therefore, in short bursts at carefully chosen times, and so I think it will be occupying the designated place next to my desk for a long time yet.