A day of surprises. I met with Vicki Lesley for a zoom, both us feeling there was something good to be mined from our connection and we weren’t wrong. An immediate sense of hello, we’ve more than we can fit in this quick hour of establishing ground. She reminded me it was the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima. I lit a candle and we talked bombs. Here’s link to the post she put out in commemoration.

I watched her documentary The Atom: A Love Affair on Netflix. It’s thorough and heartbreaking, and fascinatingly, she told me how nuclear industry insiders received it as a heroes journey (they’re the heroes). The human instinct to frame according to pathology never ceases to amaze me.

And suddenly it was 2pm and I was LIVE with Cherry Coombe - no agenda, no plan, just a merry see what happens. What happened was a dive into Bagwhan Rajneesh, working in psychiatric facilities aged 15, a commune built around the experimental off book techniques of primal therapy and a near death experience of sepsis which brought purgatory in a line of people asking for forgiveness and the end of blame. Who knew. Here’s the full recording:

By the time 3pm rolled around my head was full of Wild Wild Country and adding Children of the Cult to my watch list. People are amazing. The ability to survive and regenerate turns each one of us into a god of our making.

At 3pm G turned up as planned, but as not planned, bringing with him a jar of honey. I felt the hand of WPR so strongly I had to tell him, and he shivered and said, Do you know, I wasn’t going to bring it, I wasn’t even thinking about it, I just happened to grab it as I walked out the door. L, if you’re reading, you know it’s true.

J comes home today. He’s lost (or rather broken) his phone for the umpteenth time and that’s it, the message is crystal clear, he doesn’t want one and who am I to insist? It flies in the face of so much experience. He’ll get by. I love that he rejects the black mirror. He’s 18 and full of belief. It makes travel a little tricky but I just got a WhatsApp from his girlfriend saying he’s delivered to the airport with pieces of paper on which are written crucial bits of information, and in a few hours time I shall be waiting at arrivals to catch him. Old school. We did it and god knows we’re the better for not having had that hand held addiction ruling our lives and stealing our attention from the reality all around us. He’s on a roll, he’s caught a wave and I salute him. Onward.

Eleanor

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