Wyvern

We have had a slightly sombre day, dwelling a little on various pieces of unwelcome news about friends and their families: misfortune, illness, impending loss. All the usual thoughts: why them; why so much ill-luck in one place; why do the best people suffer when the worst appear to thrive; what little can we do to help; there, but for fortune...

Taking a step back, I can see ways in which each of the situations has been made more critical by the shortcomings of our society: stretched health-care; threadbare social care; stuttering preventative medicine; shoe-string education; collapsed housing provision; precarious employment. This is our little pool of knowledge in what must be a sea of similar stories; small tragedies exacerbated by big, national challenges, few of them truly being addressed, it seems

Some cheerful TV lifted our mood somewhat: a lighthearted conversation, at one point, about a dragon in a pool. "It's not a dragon, it's a wyvern", said one, but no explanation was provided. I looked it up. The distinction is fine: if it is a winged serpent and has four legs, it's a dragon; if it has two, it's a wyvern. To me it's a lovely word. I think there is one in my picture