A poem and a story I often used when teaching …

Today I was thinking about what to write. Inspiration was not flowing. I was thinking about the pandemic and its effects when Spike Milligan popped into my mind for some inexplicable reason. It is not really cabin related but we are, as we keep hearing in “unprecedented times”.

Spike Milligan was a very complex, interesting man who could write at times with such simplicity. As Ross discussed in an earlier blog it can be very difficult and brave to be simple in your ideas and prose.

He wrote a poem about an epidemic – a somewhat different one to the one we face today. You will probably be familiar with it – it is about smiling.

We can, in our family groups, improve our day by passing on a smile, as in the poem. We can create an epidemic when we are finally allowed to venture out of our homes – roll-on that day!

The story is about anger. It is another very simple piece of writing. I think simplicity is almost always the best kind of writing. Not sure who wrote it but I think it is clever.

It is easy to be angry at present. Grief, fear, not enough to occupy us can all lead to anger.

It is so much more difficult to be angry when you are smiling.

Stay safe. x