I'm afraid we'll have to take some time out in our weekly meetings as I've just come back from Barcelona where I've had surgery on my right hip. I'm recovering quite well but I'll need a long while to rehab and I'll be on crutches that time.
Sorry about that. In the mean time I offer you this beautiful poem "To an English friend in Africa", by Ben Okri, a Nigerian poet and writer. I first heard about him through my daughter, at that time studying Politics at Edimburgh University back fifiteen years ago.
To
an English friend in Africa
For
Daisy Waugh
Be
grateful for the freedom
To
see other dreams.
Bless
your loneliness as much as you drank
Of
your former companionships.
All
that you are experiencing now
Will
become moods of future joys
So
bless it all.
Do
not think your way superior
To
another's
Do
not venture to judge
But
see things with fresh and open eyes
Do
not condemn
But
praise when you dan
And
when you can't, be silent.
Time
now is a gift for you
A
gift of freedom
To
think and to remember and understand
The
ever perplexing past
And
to re-create yourself anew
In
order to transform time.
