The turning world

Today was marked by a number of turns. Personal and professional. The former positive. The latter mixed. At least I have finished the draft report and other members of the investigating team will finalise it, with my input reduced to commentary. However, I remain frustrated by the inertia in the system which means that our services are not responsive enough, early enough.

I hate all the upgrades that Apple expect me to adjust to. Having got used to the current programmes and making them work the way I want them to, why do I have to learn a new programme? So I don’t upgrade. But S has. To open a wee collection of poems she sent me, I needed a big upgrade. So I did it. Took so long we were later than intended leaving to come north for the long weekend (Labour Day on Monday). Next comes the learning process.

At peer review, one of the group talked of a Science Fiction novel from the 1960s, called Stand on Zanzibar. It was written by John Brunner and is dystopian and eerily predictive. He had set it in 2010, when he predicted that the population of the world would reach 7 billion. He accurately forecast the unbridled power of the mega corporations. Many of us fear that he may have been right when he predicted that the breakdown in human relationships as a result of the population being too large would result in mass killings.

Despite we puny humans, the world continues to turn. We may destroy ourselves, or the world may cleanse itself of us. Whichever way it happens (and we still have the chance of doing it sensibly and kindly), the human impact on the world must be turned down.

The sunset tonight, seen just before our part of the world turned away from the sun, was gloriously dazzling. Witnessing a sunset like this is a privilege. Neither Earth, nor the Sun need our witness, and we should remember that we need them both.