Owain Jones

We are not god, but we are not nothing, if anything taught by palmist or space telescope. 21/7/22

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tunes without the words, and never stops at all" says Emily Dickinson, and you hope she's right.

Did they meant the way they looked? Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at international space station dressed in yellow flat suits with blue trim, to be warmly greeted by their waiting Americans and Germany colleagues. Might be only 21 days, blue and yellow had acquired huge significance for us, Ukraine.

As a child I want to play the piano very badly, my dream came true, now I play the piano very badly. Dancing, don’t even ask. So I am filled with wonder by two profound human stories from the arts over the last 10 days.

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, a lot could be painful. We all know about what we did about climate emergency, but what of the scientists who know the most, they’re human beings, very well informed human beings with educated anxieties, how do they cope with those? They integrate their knowledge with action, they do things. One climate scientist plants mango sapling by her own site, she conceited that’ll hardly sort things on its own, but it’s not nothing. Some might become activists, advise government on climate change, because they’re really anger, and want to shake things up. Others could be artist, want to share how they feel and inspire us. None of these things sounds like comprehensive solution, do they? But he goes on to say, Great, we need that, we need everybody.

I love the word, Landscape. It evokes in me far more than just lovely vista. I will try to explain it by telling about one of my favourite artwork, landscape with a flight in Egypt by 16 century painter. Basically a bird-eye view from top, where people small on ground merged into background. But it's only your position, up here looking down gives you that perspective. You can't stay here forever. Real life reclaims you. It's the holiday experience in miniature. You go on a holiday, you come back, but for a short time, you lifted out the everyday, looking down on other people's lives, other people's journeys. Sooner or later it comes to an end, and you have to return old route parish.

I've reached that stage of life when you bend down to pick something off the floor, you wonder what else can I do when I'm lying down here. You feet seems further away when they used to when you put socks on. So my interests was piqued by a report, and I quote, "A robot that can dress people without injuring them". Well that's encouraging. It only take a nano second to grasp this technology isn't just for those who can't afford butlers. How about all the people, people with disabilities, restrictive movement due to accident or illness.

While we shop online as much as we can, but I buy online too, and I read the website review when I do. Here's my tip, read the one star reviews first. Sometimes they're so awful, that reassure you there can't be much wrong with the product. "This Italian DVD is Italian, I'm not kidding." "This rice cooker wouldn't cook my potato." In the news again our fake five star reviews on website of products and services posted by or on behalf of the sellers themselves.

“Tell you this, the next drink I have is going to be a larger, ice cold, when we get through this, I’m going to buy you all one” that’s the quote from that remarkable film, Ice Cold in Alex. It’s world war II, John Mill’s fragile character Captain Anson, fleeing across the baked desert to safety with crew of his rickety ambulance, is doing what human beings do, when in the wildness, he imagines the first thing he’s going to do, when he gets out of it.

Curiosity fatal for cats, marks out human as a species too, things spark our interest... But it gets us started and takes us so far, but to get beyond that, and build on it, takes perseverance.