[in brief] thoughts for the day

Over increasingly large areas of the United States, spring now comes unheralded by the return of birds; and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of birdsong. [Rachel Carson 1962]

And that will be England gone – the shadows, the meadows, the lanes, the guildhalls, the carved choirs. There’ll be books; it will linger on in galleries but all that remains for us will be concrete and tyres. [Philip Larkin 1974]

If you drive in the Australian outback as well, you’ll see dead animals and the remains of tyres. I’ve seen garbage on the roadside in Vancouver and in Reykyavik. Despite the best efforts of the minority, the desolation proceeds, with little check.

I count myself a conservative – certainly in society and relationships – and conservative, to me, means not so much wanting the status to remain quo but striving for a higher level of responsibility.