Black Swan

 I dreamed my ex-wife waved me over- and there, at the top of house, was my daughter, standing at an upper-floor window with the black swan she'd reared, teaching it how to fly.

Its wings expanded. it took off- and we followed its progress as it flew in an arc above us, so very high up it was almost out of sight

Narcissism- A Rambling Discourse

 I have self-respect, you are a wee bit vain, he/she/it is a narcissist....

Narcissism is in vogue right now. The word I mean, the concept. These things come and go in popular discourse. We think we've hit upon an idea that gets to the heart of things and then we get bored with having it crop up so often and drop it.

I was listening to a couple of podcasts by a guy who says he's a Narcissist- and his mission in life is to warn others against his kind. How nice of him. But since a defining feature of the narcissist is that they lie all the time it's quite likely he's having us on. Most of his podcasts were about the Duchess of Sussex and I wondered- idly (because I had no intention of listening to any of them)- how he was finding so much to say about someone he characterises as utterly empty.

The original Narcissus was a sad young man who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool, couldn't tear himself away- and faded until he turned into a flower. His rejected lover, the nymph Echo, also faded and became a wandering voice. Incidentally, my man Poussin has a painting of them both, which is one of the most affecting and poetic of his early mythologies...

Narcissus was very beautiful, which is more than can be said for our most famous contemporary narcissists- a couple of senior politicians with funny yellow hair.

The narcissist in the podcast had some sharp things to say- but after a while I began to feel queasy. Even as a disembodied voice (like Echo) he was really rather toxic (and that's another word that's having its dog's day).

In one of the podcasts his interviewer spoke of narcissism being something that existed on a sliding scale. "Not so" said the Narcissist. "You're either a narcissist or you're not". I think he's wrong about that.