Shorter But Nicer

[poliphilo]

I had my follow-up blood test this morning. Also I got measured and weighed. I'm 5'7" and 12st. 7oz. Don't ask me how that translates into metric. Ailz says I can't be 5'7" because she's 5'7" and I'm taller than her. Really? So we measured up against one another and our eyes are pretty much on the level. We also looked in the mirror, but it's a dressing-table mirror and we couldn't see our heads. Maybe I used to wear higher heels or something.

The nurse was in a bit of a grump. It's her afternoon off and she has a class to go to- something to do with measuring pulses in diabetic feet. "Yes," I said, shamelessly, "I don't suppose they'll have anything to tell you that you don't already know." "Well, she said, reflectively, "They usually come up with something new". She was a lot cheerier after that.

I'm trying hard to be nice to people these days.  Making a real effort.  This started before I returned to church, but I don't suppose it's unconnected. Yesterday I found myself surveying my LJ post after I'd written it- and wondering if I'd been sufficiently nice to the authors I'd critiqued.  Because Christians are unfailingly nice, right?  Ogodogodogodogod, I'm turning into Cliff Richard!

Comments

johnsonian?

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

perhaps...the spirit of the middle
ages is a large subject I am not
very qualified in though I did like
huizinga's waning of the middle ages
about all that remains in mind is the
bright colors...
belloc certainly positioned himself as
cantankerous... perhaps in part it was like
w c fields who in fact was kind to children.

I suspect he is in this sort of thing
like samuel johnson who says that if a man
comes at you with a stick to steal your
purse you disarm and subdue him before
talking to him and all the more if someone
comes at you to argue out of your faith which
is more precious than any purse etc

Re: johnsonian?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Belloc was one of the first "grown up" writers I ever read- and I love him dearly. A curiously conflicted man- as much French as English and as fiercely catholic as he was fiercely republican. He was a rough controversialist, not above bending the facts- I believe- when fighting for one of his favourite causes.

yes

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

there is a biography I enjoyed by
wilson...andrew wilson was it?
he wrote some poorly done books also
--boilerplate, as someone gave me
his robespierre and it is no good

cruise of nora,road to rome, four
men are all fine and the verse
but it always is saddening to me how
many books I have read and how few if
any I remember in any substantial way.

I think with belloc I shoot the hippopotamus
with bullets made of platinum will remain
but that is about all.

Re: yes

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a long time since I read Belloc, but certain things remain indelible. The Four Men is my favourite- because I read it at a formative age- and because it deals with a landscape I know and love.

He once remarked, sadly and defiantly, that the only book he wrote for love- as opposed to money- was The Road to Rome.