Bettany Hughes
I've been watching a new series by Bettany Hughes on the three key BCE philosophers whose thoughts still resonate today. First was The Buddha, who taught us that "it changes" and if we can accept impermanence, maybe we can begin to rid ourselves of the attachments to things which hold us. I am surrounded by stiff which, I know, holds me back - it takes up a lot of time living in clutter (oh, actually it's quite tidy clutter, but it clutters up my mind and my time as well as my space) and when I vow to get rid of it, I always modify to 'some' of it, and when I start, the amount going out lessens - although I do move it around and create the impression that I have shed more than I really have. Stuff holds so many memories - peoiple, places, times good, or times bad - and when we let them go, or when I let them go, it feels like I am letting the memories go. Because although the memories are all stored in the massive repository inside my head, it's only when I find a snapshot, or a bus ticket, or a doll without her head, or a hair-grip, or a button badge, or a CD, or a theatre programme, that a huge amount of data pours into my conscious mind and I can feel the weather on a particular day 16 years ago, taste the food, hear the voice I haven't heard for 10 years, hold the hand I thought I'd never release, feel the lips and tongue brushing my own! For every single object I possess is a desktop shortcut to all of that and more. It's just that they take up so much room and I don't have enough room for them and ME!
Kurt Schwitters Hanover Merz-Bau held thousands of these objects and I've been promising myself a trip to Ambleside to see the last one he created,
Which is nothing to with Bettany. The second programme was about Socrates and the future of Democracy, born in the Athens of his lifetime, being particularly under threat in the collision between the Greek people, their Government and the European Union, Monetary Fun, and Banks, makes a reflection on his life, teachings and method of enquiry quite apposite. And next Wednesday, Confucius (K'ung Fu-tzu) promises to be just as interesting and enlightening.
 
I know some of my friends think my pleasure in Bettany Hughes has as much to do with her ample bosom as her historical expositions, but that is just partially true. I can shut my eyes and just listen to her programmes - unless they are on the radio when I can keep my eyes open - and get enjoyment, instruction and illumination, without filling my eyes with her bosom. But what is wrong with admiring Bettany Hughes for herself as well as for her research and her writing, I ask. And I say - Nothing!