“To be everlastingly passing through dangers which we know cannot scathe us, to be taking oaths which we know cannot bind us, to be defying enemies who we know cannot conquer us—this is the grinning tyranny of decadence which is called freedom.”

Excerpt From: Gilbert Keith Chesterton. “The Defendant”

Whatever capacity I thought I possessed to see – or to unveil – the happiness of life has vanished in an instant! In the throes of a so-called common cold I have by comparison discovered that being ill takes the fun out of everything. More significantly it would appear that my alleged talent if any was nothing more than my particular mode of expression; and that the substance of happiness isn’t at all my skill to reveal it. In fact it merely comes with the territory – namely, feel good, see good!

Estimating current political activity is an eye-opener. The undertaking confronts humanity’s elemental – or more precisely visceral – features. At the outset I am reminded of the adage, “There are two things you never want to see being made – sausage and law“. The same might be said of our own beginnings in life. Nature is a rude, sometimes disturbingly violent, passionate and marvellous mystery. Like it or not nature insinuates activity of every description. Like it or not nature motivates the politician.

All day we’ve experienced high winds from the south – currently clocking at 43 km/hr. Strangely the forecast tomorrow is a ten degree drop in temperature to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. I would have thought it would be the other way round considering the direction of the wind. After tomorrow however the temperature begins to climb to a more seasonal 79 degrees Fahrenheit. All of us who chose to lounge in the intense sun by the pool today remarked upon the high wind naturally. We patently thrilled to the fury of the wind. It is nature’s drama.

It has been so long since I suffered the commonality of a cold that I had forgotten its enfeebling persuasion. But today after having spent the past several days pretending I had overcome the initial clues I succumbed to defeat. My capitulation began unconventionally this morning when – after having languidly arisen from the lair at ten o’clock – I took more pain killers and cough medicine and then unhesitatingly returned to the folds of the duvet. It was not until noon that I re-awoke from my analgesic reverie and at last commenced the usual ablutions and got something to eat. Significantly my diminished behaviour was without regret. I actually congratulated myself for having listened to nature’s signals for inactivity – though admittedly not without a measure of regret at having missed three hours of the day!

Roads wouldn’t normally be considered memorable. Yet I find myself wistfully recalling the roads down which I have trod or driven or been driven. The recollections are astonishingly acute. I can easily hark back to a road connected with every period of my life! This warrants attention akin to discovering a feature which has insinuated one’s life unawares. The detail goes far beyond pavement. The thrust of each road is unequivocally emotional or psychological or both!

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In 1963 a voyage to Europe was considered far-reaching and chic. Granted the normal limit of the compass was London, Paris, Zürich and Rome. The allure of the Black Sea was yet unheard of. The Baltic Sea was only occasionally pronounced. Almost sixty years later it is not uncommon to hear of people venturing to the South Pacific, the South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. In the time between these two polarities people in North America tuned into short but indulgent jaunts to the Caribbean, the Mayan Riviera, Costa Rica, Panama and South America.

Several days ago we noticed a trail of tiny ants each less than the size of a pin head on the march in a uniform line along the lower periphery of the dining room wall streaming upwards to the top margin and then down again approaching the kitchen area. The precision of their military performance was commendable. There was no obvious attraction for the ants such as food. The only noticeable difference of late was the drop in the ambient temperature which we speculated may have encouraged the ants to come indoors. We have naturally arranged to have a pest control company look into the matter.

The triumph of egotism is not as you might imagine its willing admission but rather its flagrant denial. Trump and his sycophantic minions have proven the success of the posture. But before you or anyone else gets too enthusiastic about defeating this demonstrable display of engineering it is first wiser to recall the universality of the contamination.

We haven’t exactly got a lot to do here on Longboat Key – a combination of our own inactivity and the lack of anything beyond the gated residences other than the open sea. Nonetheless arranging something as formidable as lunch requires a measure of calculation. If not that totting up then at the very least the benefit of serendipity. Assuming going to lunch isn’t something we’ve already planned (a superfluity which seldom overtakes unless we’re going with others) then we have to ensure – or hope – several preconditions collide.