WFH: DAY 59. 7.00 am: I awoke to the sound of the rain on the Velux’s window pane, and was thankful. In a different age, communities prayed for rain in times of want as they did for a successful harvest. Likewise, they petitioned God to bring down the wicked, unwise, and oppressive ruler and establish righteousness in the land while,…

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so (Thomas Merton (1915–1968)). WFH: DAY…

‘I’m Jack Johnson. Heavyweight champion of the world. I’m black; they never let me forget it. I’m black alright; I’m never let them forget it’ (Jack Johnson (1878­–1946).) WFH: DAY 56. I woke at 7.45 am after a dismal night’s sleep and a great many thoughts. House (detail) #36: The day, therefore, began behind time — at least as far…

Silence is not the absence of sound, rather it is an aspect of sound WFH: DAY 55. 8.00 am: A communion. House (detail) #35: 8.30 am: A review of the inbox and my plans for the working day. 9.00 am: A little mopping up of MA Vocational Practice presentation assessments. 9.45 am: Refreshments were served. My habit of eating a…

WFH: DAY 54. 6.30 am: Rise. House (detail) #34: I shaved to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 this morning. It’s wonderful forward momentum had me tripping spritely around the bathroom. 7.30 am: A communion. 8.00 am: Adminy stuff was approached with vim and vigour, fired by a desire to apportion the larger part of the day to research catch-up. 9.00…

‘Every nation gets the government it deserves‘ (Joseph de Maistre (1753–1821)) Certainly, it got the government that the majority of people in the UK believed in implicitly and voted for. But they didn’t deserve the current state of affairs, any more than those who cast their lots in a different direction. I’ve lived under the governance of thirteen Prime Ministers…

‘What is truth?’ (John 18.28) WFH: DAY 52. 8.00 am: A communion. 8.45 am: A quick Twitter review and the inbox before settling into the morning’s round of PhD tutorials. All my discussions seem to be of the present these days. The future appears like an under-exposed negative, presently: vague forms suggesting the presence of something more defined; spaces where…

WFH: DAY 51. Yesterday was a time for putting things away, self-examination, planning future dispositions of the mind and heart, reaffirming determinations, and standing motionless on one spot. I don’t often write to my constituency MP, but yesterday’s on-going debacle of governmental integrity and indecisiveness required a response: 8.00 am: A Communion. 8.45 am: Inbox plunder. 9.00 am: Today, there’d…

‘Be sure your sin will find you out’ (Numbers 32.23) House (detail) #30: WFH: DAY 50. Late yesterday evening, I read a conversation with Carly Berwick, an American sound artist, digital artist, and journalist who, like me, came to sound through fine art rather than through music. And, like me, found it difficult to locate her interests in sound and…

WFH: DAY 49. 8.15 am: A communion. 9.00 am: Fruit tea in hand, I caught-up on residual admin, notifications of classes and tutorials for next week, and student references. (In the background: BBC Radio 3’s Jazz Record Requests. The show featured the work of the saxophonist Lee Konitz, who died at the age of 92 last month. I heard him…