Reflections 22 August.

On my mind this week.

I have been aware for some time of what I have described as a "quickening." A sense of dissonance; an unease generated by events that we do not talk about but often surfaces in reflective conversations. It's also, I understand, a term used by midwives to describe the first feelings of foetal movement during pregnancy. Seems approporiate somehow,

Perhaps it's the disruption and angst triggered by responses to the pandemic. Or maybe the increasing awareness of the fragility, and shallowness, of the organisations that run our lives. When the pandemic is followed by an IPCC report that puts the planet on "code red", more than a little dissonance is to be expected. However, when that is followed by the almost surreal collapse of twenty years of imposed control in Afghanistan in forty-eight hours by a movement with no aircraft, no satellites, no sophisticated weaponry, and WhatsApp communication, our grasp on things seems more than a little tenuous. Combine that with a s…