Robert Paterson's Weblog

Joan Brady's view of the world

Here is an example of my friend Joan's work and her view of life

Who are we?

Am I only this middle aged man that I am today?

Are any of us just as we are or are we a composite of all our ages? I cannot help myself: sometimes when, I look at a child I see the adult to come or, when I see an older woman, I see the girl she used to be. Maybe every child has the adult in them and every adult, the child?

Cyn has some remarkable pictures of her aged about 6 on her site. I see the essence of Cynthia today in these innocent and open perspectives. Sometimes this sweet girl just pops out.

Here is the photo that I love the best of me that I hope expresses my own delight in play and adventure. It was taken on a family holiday in Cornwall in England. I am about 6 or 7 then. Do those of you know me see him now and then?

My mother is 77 this year. She is amazed that she is this old and sees herself about about a perpetual 30. As a girl she looked like Grace Kelly

When I get depressed about how frail she has become, I buck myself up, knowing that Rosalie Ann is in there somewhere and that she will come out again when her time is done here where time only moves one way.

Lost Boy - Do you know him?

I received this message today as part of a huge chain email. Maybe it is better to post him on the 'sphere. Here is the contact info

The boy about 2 years, from Khoa Lak is missing his parents. Nobody
>>knows
>>what country he comes from. If anyboy known him please contact us by
>>phone
>>076-249400-4 ext. 1336, 1339 or e- mail :
>>info@phuket-inter-hospital.co.th

The Hoggs in Hampshire

My Godson, Thomas Neil is the boy on the left. He is with his Mother Clare and his sister Domini in the craft workshop where Domini makes jewelry. We are just about to sit down to watch Life of Brian.

We are eating so much that exercise has become essential. Here is Robin slumming it in the pool.

It is just before dinner and James is doing the important work of opening another bottle.

Sunday night dinner. Chicken lasagna with Domini playing the harp in her jammies in the background. Thomas Neil has just gone back to school.

More bugs and Hope - Trick or treating redefined

You have heard her - now watch her

Mrs Reagan and Mr Gorbachev - a Sign of a Different Presidency

Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

A President's legacy become more clear over time. It is clear now that Mr Reagan was a man who talked tough on the world stage but who wanted above all peace. This image taken this week is a testament of the relationships that he built to this end. America is now all but friendless and the President is alone with his advisors. Who outside his family circle will comfort Mrs Bush in the week of his death?

Mother's day

Who are our parents? We know only a part of them. My mother Rosalie is confined to a wheelchair today and can do nothing for herself.

When she was a young woman, she was the Grace Kelly of Montreal

Who was this woman? I never knew her. Does she live in her memories? Is this how she sees herself in her mind's eye.

Home again!

I have just finished nearly 8 weeks of work at York - some tidying up to do. It has been such a gratifying assignment that has exposed me to a wonderful group of people and to a profound problem of how to create a "customer" experience in a complex social environment of 50,000 students has been an unusual beginning to the year.

The only drawback has been all the travel and the time away from home. The paradoxical benefit has been that I have stayed with my sister Diana. After so many years, the two of us have got connected again as we were as children. Diana and I grew up in a Edwardian household. I do not recall meeting my father until I was 7. My mother would have lunch with us on Thursday, Nanny's day off. So Diana and I were all that we had and became so close that we could arrange to meet in our dreams. 8 weeks with her has been a joy for us both.

Maybe if we are alone as oldies we will end up together again as we were at the beginning of our lives.

Here she is

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How are the Mighty Fallen? - General Karpinski

Apology - I had used a photo of General Karpinski here that was copyrighted to US Army -SFC W. Sutherland. I apologize here for not seeking permission or offering credit.

Was she only following orders? Was she out of her league?
Here is a story about General Karpinski written when she was a hero

"She's really caring," says Sgt. 1st Class Philip J. May of Pinellas Park. "She doesn't just talk the talk, she walks the walk." least once every three months, Karpinski tries to visit each prison, although she scaled back a bit as attacks against the coalition increased.

More later from the Daily Telegraph once the story broke:

The commander of the prison service in Iraq, Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski, 50, has been suspended from duty and is expected to be charged. Colleagues of the tough, super-fit officer last night described her as a woman with one mission – to raise her own profile. "She was out of her depth and on a mission to raise her own profile. Now, she ll be forced to quit. "She should have been aware what her troops were doing, but she wasn't."

Beware of Clever Bureaucrats on a Mission