It’s been a long time since I’ve written a post on Sparrow Chat. The last time was back in March and that was only a rehash of a short story for the anniversary of the disappearance of Flight MH370.
There have been many reasons for my lethargy, not least of all the loss of my dear wife due to cancer in 2021. I moved house this year and as I’m growing older the stress of doing it alone was difficult to handle. Many folks were telling me I needed to start a new life and move to a different area of France, so I relocated to Normandy, a small bungalow set in woodland that I hoped would bring me some peace of mind.
I’m not sure it has, though it’s early days and I must give it time. The summer has been difficult with temperatures often into the low thirties at times (that’s the nineties in old money!)
Another reason for not writing is the possibly cataclysmic rise to power in America of Donald Trump, coupled with the horror that has engulfed the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank ,and of course the ongoing slaughter of Ukrainians by the madman, Putin.
In my own country, the UK, I’ve watched the decline of morality with sadness and shame. The treatment of poor immigrants and the false rhetoric by the likes of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known to most as Tommy Robinson, is disgusting; far-right lies spread virulently through social media. The recent far-right demonstration in London that attracted 110,000 people displayed how easy it is to warp the minds of ordinary folk into a mob mentality.
There is something evil spreading around the world fanned by rich tech tycoons whose lust for power has robbed them of any sense of decency and humanity.
Meanwhile climate change moves ever onward. The amount of greenhouse gases discharged yearly continues to rise while governments sit on their asses; their masters the fossil fuel companies, plastics consortiums, mining corporations and others who keep them in power, and their wallets well filled.
There is much written about it all online and I do not feel the need for Sparrow Chat to join the chaos they call debate.
I am as yet undecided whether to close this site permanently, or perhaps seek some way to bend it into something I can live wîth and keep writing about.
Time will tell.