Lights And Shadows

We still find ourselves deferring to my mother's erstwhile tastes when choosing a TV channel for her to sit in front of in the afternoons and evenings, but really it makes no difference anymore: sport, old movies, cop shows, gardening shows, wildlife documentaries- they're all the same. She doesn't see, she doesn't hear, she doesn't understand. She'll even watch EastEnders. Once we found her with the power turned off contentedly watching the reflected lights and shadows on a blank screen.

"But there's something going on," she said. "I can see things moving."

Distant echoes from Plato's cave....