The Oscillating Narrative

One of the things I have learned to do over time is to read, listen and notice without focus. To allow what I am paying attention to form its unique shape, rather than force it into a container of context.

This morning, like most mornings, I was listening to "Farming Today" on Radio 4 at 5:45. It's become a habit because I have developed enormous respect for farmers as exemplars of working with uncertainty and the sheer variety of approaches of managing within it. This morning those approaches varied from nurturing soil health naturally to the efficient and profitable management of "protein production units" (or to you and me, sentient animals.) In between were a range of other stories, each with their unique context, from the degree to which we might return to office-based working to the shortage of lorry drivers. I find it a productive exercise to consider what links them, some form of "lowest common denominator." But, as is often the case, I did not need to look for it, as it found …