Thursday 6th March - people as 'us'

Thought for the day

Something a wise old witch said in a Terry Pratchet book, 'Carpe Jugulam' was quoted in a blog yesterday. I looked it up to get the wording right;

 "...And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.’.... People as things, that’s where it starts.”

― Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum

Terry Pratchett wasn't a religious man, as far as I know, but his books contained a sharp commentary on a wide variety of moral issues beneath the sugar-coating of the laugh-out-loud adventures antics and frankly ridiculous flights of fancy in his books. 

Granny Weatherwax appears in a number of the books, and you wouldn't want to cross her. If her sharp tongue and penetrative insights didn't catch you out, her spells would easily finish you off. 

But treating people as things, that's exactly where sin, evil, callous indifference, despising others, discounting the humanity of others... where that all starts. When people become they, them, and not us, we.

.....

The 30 Minute Banana

I don't know how look it took me. 

I rubbed out my first drawing and started again, took a complicated phone call which demanded my full attention, went back to the banana, and, well, all things considered, and especially because I didn't want to draw a banana but it's lesson one in the book, and I was using pen because I might want to paint over it... is this sentence still naking sense?... all things considered it's OK. 

Although it does seem to need a cartoon face and comic speech bubble... what would it be saying?  'You took your time finishing me!'

....

Music

He painted Salford's smokey tops

On cardboard boxes from the shops

And parts of ancoats where I used to play

I'm sure he once walked down our street

'Cause he painted kids who had nowt on their feet

The clothes we wore had all see better days

Now they said his works of art were dull

No room, all 'round, the walls are full

But Lowry didn't care much anyway

They said he just paints cats and dogs

And matchstalk men in boots and clogs

And Lowry said, "That's just the way they'll stay"

And he painted matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs

He painted kids on the corner of the street that were sparking clogs

Now he takes his brush, and he waits outside them factory gates

To paint his matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs

Now canvas and brushes were wearing thin

When London started calling him

To come on down and wear the old flat cap

They said, "Tell us all about your ways

And all about them Salford days

Is it true you're just an ordinary chap?"

And he painted matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs...

Now Lowry's hang upon the wall

Beside the greatest of them all

And even the Mona Lisa takes a bow

This tired old man with hair like snow

Told northern folk it's time to go

The fever came and the good lord mopped his brow

And he painted matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs...