Families, I hate you!

American loud-mouth blowhard “businessman” of dubious notoriety, Donald Trump, on a recent TV talk program put his views on nepotism in stark focus, while lamely justifying the abrupt dismissal ("you're fired") of a long-serving faithful trusted employee and her subsequent replacement by one of his own (flesh and blood that is), haughtily declaring in an offensive display of unscrupulous self-importance that he “loved nepotism … it’s good!”. Brings to mind Andre Gide’s (1869-1951) succinct assessment of such galling progenitorial aloofness: “Families, I hate you! Shut-in homes, closed doors, jealous possessors of happiness”.

The ambiguous life ...

"The human mind has two main scales on which to measure time. The large one takes the length of a human life as its unit, so that there is nothing to be done about life, it is of an animal dignity and simplicity, and must be regarded from a peaceable and fatalistic point of view. The small one takes as its unit the conscious moment, and it is from this that you consider the neighbouring space, an activity of the will, delicacies of social tone, and your personality" Seven Types of Ambiguity William Empson (1906-84)