Latitude of Laziness

You’ll find it somewhere between the Tropics of Languid and Layabout and no, you don’t have to go looking for it. You just need to sit back, do absolutely nothing and sink into it. Welcome to Lotus-eating Land where you don’t even have to eat the lotuses (or is it lotii?? – who cares anyway?) if you don’t want to. In fact, you don’t need to do anything you don’t want to. Because this is where Nothing is something you do and do very well indeed.

Let’s take a closer look. It cuts through the ages, from the very young to the very old. It isn’t gender-specific and you could find the male and the female of the species though a larger number of males seem to want to migrate here. Or rather, they want to sink through wherever they are into any place here. You’ll find that the traffic moves very slowly and happily here, making the right turns into the boulevards of bliss and the lanes of listlessness.  Selling won’t work because the attitudes are fixed even though they exist in a bubble of non-action. This is the land where impatience and time-keeping are banned, never to enter its passive portals. This is where the gods of idleness and laidbackness are placed on a pedestal and worshipped. Where hymns of lounging and lullabies of loafing softly rise into the still air.

Now, for an even closer look. This is not a land for the faint-hearted. It takes courage to achieve the right to be here. It takes a certain strength of will to do nothing. So what you might find in a resident’s psyche is a do-nothing attitude that permeates the brain and makes it one wonderful indolent mass. Were brain-mapping allowed, there would be patches of procrastination in a sea of tranquility, with nary a stressful atom to upset the calm. Mind and body are in a beautiful state of balance with a perfect nothingness that makes them whole. If you were to view the Kirlian auras here, you would see gentle greens, sleepy blues and lazy lilacs. And you’ll learn that everyone lives by those simple words of wisdom, ‘Let it be!’

Pi: Dying And Googled

Some things were sacrosanct when we were growing up and Pi was one of them. It was well-ensconced on its mathematical pedestal and it looked like it had life eternal. Now whoever thought that it had feet of clay and would one day crumble and collapse? Not in our wildest dreams! But the times they are a-changing so rapidly and even the life and times of Pi must come to an end. Oh, how the hallowed have fallen!

                                                     

It all began with Bob Palais’ article ten years ago ‘Pi is wrong’. And a while ago, Michael Hartl resurrected the argument for a new circle constant. So what is right according to these new-fangled maths wizards? 2Pi or Tau as Palais’ followers have been calling it the last year.  According to them, 6.28 makes better sense than 3.14 and they are calling for a Tau Day which they want on the 28^th of June (6/28, see?) Arguments for and against are flying fast and furious and with the speed at which the world is changing, who knows? The Pi we thought was hallowed and everlasting could soon be history.

Maybe someone should have told the Google guys about it when they were bidding for the Nortel patents. Were they being too clever or were they really not interested and just having fun? They even bid $3.14159 billion at one point during the auction. And the other figures had mathematical connotations too – from Brun’s constant to the Meissel-Merten’s constant, these figures just confused many at the auction. The bidding went up to $4.5 billion and the consortium consisting of Apple, Microsoft, Rim and Sony got it. Looks like Google really isn’t serious about their Android venture. Maybe if they were keeping up with what was going on in the mathematical world, they would have gone up to the magical Tau figure of 6.28 and won it! 

Growing Up With Georgette Heyer

She’s been so much a part of my young days and she’s still like a familiar friend that I go back to when I need a laugh. Any book of hers I found, I bought. It’s a collection I wouldn’t part with for anything. For me, she’s on par with Jane Austen – and I discovered Jane Austen after I read Georgette Heyer.

Georgette Heyer has been dismissed by many as just another romance writer. You need to read her to know just how unfair that is. She couldn’t be more different from a romance writer like Barbara Cartland as chalk from cheese. This was the writer who brought the Regency romance genre into being – and what a wonderful, well-researched picture she paints of Regency England with words. Her books bring to life the Nonpareils of fashion in that era, all the nitty-gritty’s of high ton at its best, every little fashionable quirk from the late 18^th to the early 19^th century and the London of Almack’s, highwaymen, intricately carved snuffboxes, masked balls and curricles.

It all began for me at 10 when I was down with a bout of the flu and my mother came home with an armful of books from the library – one of them was Devil’s Cub and the author was Georgette Heyer. A few pages into the book and I was a goner – a Georgette Heyer addict for life. Decades later, I still reach out for a well-thumbed copy and the choice of titles depends on my mood. The great thing about her books is the incredible humour. Sure, there are the stereotypes that are found in many of her books. The masked villain, the stuttering young buck, the foppish old gentlemen, the beady-eyed dowagers.  The books always have a romantic angle – it is the structure around which the story is constructed. However, romance is not the crux of each book – just a barebones structure that allows for wordplay between the characters that assume an almost lifelike presence. Her research is meticulous – and whether it was the wars or the events of the time, even the fashion, she did a lot of painstaking work to make sure that each book and the period it was set in was as true to life as she could make it. From the elegance of Regency England fashion with its foibles, to the understated dress trends with Beau Brummell – she paints pictures so vivid, it’s just like being there.

In her historical romances, she hardly ever states what year it is – but all the inferences, the events, the fads are spot on. She could be seen in the libraries and the museums, taking down notes and she did her level best to make sure that even the speech and expressions were as true to the period as possible. Hers is Wodehousian wit taken out of the countryside and the gentlemen’s clubs to the lavishly furnished drawing rooms, card rooms and watering holes of London, Bath and Brighton – with a few quick trips to Paris.

In real life, she was probably more like Mary, the heroine in Devil’s Cub than Leonie, the young red-haired beauty in These Old Shades. To think that her first novel was written to amuse her brother who was ill – at the tender age of 17! She went on to publish 50 titles after that – and 2 were published after she died. Georgette Heyer was her real name and once she got married, she was quite content to be Mrs. Ronald Rougier and remain in the background, letting her books do the talking. In fact, many of her readers knew her married name only when her death was announced in the newspapers. Anyone who has read her books can’t just dismiss her as a mere romance writer. While Barbara Cartland might have been prolific, churning out books to a formula and rarely bothering about how authentic her background was, Heyer was meticulous and thorough.

Like Shakespeare, she used the ‘masquerading as the opposite gender’ so very well in some of her books like The Masqueraders and These Old Shades.  Like the plots of the Bard, this cross dressing made for some delightful and hilarious scenes in her books. She also tried her hand at murder mysteries and a few of her books are very in the Agatha Christie mould. However, swashbuckling romance was her speciality and she handled it as delicately as any of her expert horsemen protagonists – never too much to be racy, never too slow to be a bore. The ride was always punctuated with acerbic wit and fond humour of the best kind – and it made millions of her fans come back to read again and again.

Once Upon A Time In LollaLand

Once upon a time, where all good stories begin, there was a land where the good people toiled hard and were happy with what they reaped by the sweat of their brow. In the centre of the land stood their prized possession – the wonderful LollaTree. And why was it so wonderful? It was the LollaLeaf that they used to buy and sell whatever they wanted.

The LollaTree grew and grew and with it, the good people of the land prospered. There was a ritual that the LollaTree demanded though - and that was, every time they wanted a new batch of LollaLeaves, they had to insert a Glitto into the hollow in the tree. Only then could they harvest a new crop of LollaLeaves. The roots of the LollaTree needed to be nourished with Glittos which were mined from deep down inside the earth. The soil under the tree grew rich with Glittos and the LollaLeaves traveled far and wide, bringing wealth and prosperity to the land.

One day, when the Council of Power met, one of them said, “We don’t have any more Glittos to put into the hollow – what do we do?’ The Main One thought for a while. “Our good people have worked and toiled so hard – it would be wrong to take away the joy that the LollaLeaves bring them. Let’s just pretend – just this once that we have the Glittos. We will paint LollaLeaves exactly like the ones from the LollaTree and no one need know. We must protect our people.” So they made LollaLeaf substitutes so that the good people who worked hard could keep smiling.

“Only till we get the next lot of Glittos – then we’ll make up,” they said. And it was in the year three score and eleven. The months passed and the LollaLeaves were craved for all over the world. A year later, the Council of Power met once more and there was worry writ on all their faces. “Our people are happy but we can’t get enough Glittos for the LollaTree,” they said. The Main One smiled. “Then the Glittos will have to go. Look at how well our LollaLeaves are doing all over the world. Who needs the Glittos anymore?” So he sent the town criers all over the world to tell everyone that from henceforth, the LollaLeaf would be the measure of exchange without the benefit of the Glittos.

The Watcher who couldn’t speak watched and was very afraid. Where was this story going, he wondered? How could he tell the good people that they were not going down the ‘happily ever after road’? They were so sure they were.

With prosperity came chariots which were big and fancy and soon, the lio that was used to grease the chariots wasn’t enough. They needed more. So they went to the far off Land of Lio to get more and they could buy as much as they wanted with the wonderful LollaLeaves.

The first rumblings were heard in VinoLand, at the other end of the pond. They had too many LollaLeaves lying around so they wanted Glittos instead. “Take your LollaLeaves and give us an equal measure of Glittos,” they said. But there were not enough Glittos to give. They knew that today if it was VinoLand, tomorrow it would be others who would want Glittos instead of the LollaLeaves.

The Watcher wondered what they would do. Would the bubble burst? Would the world guess what a tangled web had been woven? The time has come, he thought. He was wrong.

The Council of Power knew they had to think fast. So they went to the Land of Lio and struck a deal. Every country that bought any Lio had to pay for it with LollaLeaves. Needless to say, the LollaLeaf grew even stronger and the sunshine of prosperity shone even brighter in LollaLand. When the people of LollaLand needed more lio for their own chariots, the Council of Power just went out and had more LollaLeaves painted.

They had so much now that they wondered what to do with them. “Let’s lend it to our people so they can buy themselves bigger cars, bigger mansions,” they said. “Let the people be even happier than they are!”

Till one voice from the province of Qira in the Land of Lio who had been a friend decided that he would allow people to buy his lio with another leaf. This would not be good for the good people so the Council knew they didn’t have a choice – they had to still his voice. They really didn’t have an option – it was his fault – why oh, why couldn’t he have let things be? He should have toed the line, not rebelled. Once his voice was stilled, the LollaLeaf was reinstated as the official measure of exchange – quietly but firmly.

The Watcher watched, sick to his stomach. He knew it was the beginning of the end. What would the good people do when they knew the truth? What would happen when the scales fell from their eyes? That it wasn’t the Lio but the LollaLeaf that was to blame?

Then came other voices of dissent. From the Land of Venez where their leader refused to sell his lio for only LollaLeaves. Then it was the leader of Nira, a neighbour of Qira and he did the unthinkable – he said he would accept all leaves from all over the world except the LollaLeaf.

The Watcher moved to a nearby hillock and watched as the LollaLeaf started crumbling. He watched as the scales fell from a few thinking eyes. He watched as the good people approached the crossroads – would they take the narrow long and winding road to the happily ever after? Suddenly in his hopeless eyes, there was a gleam – of hope. “Nothing is impossible,” he thought, “Not when the good people have the will to overcome. This too shall pass.”

Verily, verily, below the LollaTree, way below the levels of the Lio and the Glittos there runs the vein of Verity. If one digs deep enough, the springs of Truth will out, nourishing the land with cleansing streams, bringing new life and new hope.

Looking Back On LollaLand

All ‘Once Upon A Time’ stories unfortunately do not automatically end with ‘happily ever after’. The ‘happily ever after’ needs a lot of work to make it come true. So it was with LollaLand. There was a time when the LollaTree stood proud and strong in LollaLand against every wind that blew, knowing that it reigned supreme in the world. Once its Glitto nourishment stopped however, it was living on borrowed time. Buffeted by its gardeners, supported by the Council of Power, it still held its position of honour in the world but the writing was on the wall. Soon, there were whispers not of ‘What if….’ but of ‘How soon…???’

It was the year 2020 and the Watcher had been watching global events unfold. There were no best of times anymore – just bad times which spiralled down ever often to worse times and then slowly settled back to the bad. He watched as the world he knew was enveloped in a cloud of hopelessness, not knowing how to deal with what was happening. And yet, in his heart, hope was not laid to rest. He realised that there had to be a stripping down, a cleansing to start afresh and true.

It did not help the LollaTree that its leaves were losing their shine around the world. Nor did the rumours help – of devious plots to consign the LollaLeaf to history by growing a new tree with shiny new leaves. Of how these leaves were quietly shipped out to strongholds in DragonLand across the other side of the world to be held in safekeeping. Whispers in the wind, may of them untrue but underneath it all lay one fact – the LollaLeaf was fast losing credibility and its intrinsic worth.

It was all a chimera that was being put together for years by the powers that were. A bright shiny picture painted on a cardboard sky with a paper moon floating by. A backdrop for the well-rehearsed play that unfolded on the world’s stage – only the actors were so consummate, their spectators thought what they were watching was for real. Till one day, the scales fell away from people’s eyes because they couldn’t pretend anymore and everyone joined the chorus to dislodge the LollaLeaf.

The Watcher shut his eyes and rewound his thoughts to 12 years ago when the death knell had sounded for the LollaLeaf. It took two whole years for the LollaLeaf to get dislodged from its pinnacle of supremacy and it was just not rooted down enough to withstand the pressure the rulers of the other lands were exerting. So the era of the LollaLeaf came to an end and a new age began where the LollaLeaf was recognised only within the boundaries of LollaLand.

The clamouring grew louder. Why should we have the LollaLeaf lording it over all our leaves? they asked.  The rulers of DragonLand were the most vociferous because they had the largest stake in LollaLand. There was a time when they had bought bonds belonging to the Treasury House of LollaLand – would they just be papyrus of little worth when the time came to redeem them?

The world watched as the value of Glittos went up, up, up. In just one year, in LollaLand’s Glitto-making house alone there was a sharp surge from striking 140,000 a year to 710,000 a year. The only reason this was happening was because the faith in the LollaLeaf was plummeting.

“Let us have a common leaf that belongs to no land,” they all said. This was not something LollaLand wanted or supported but the tide was fast turning against it and there came a day when it had to go with the flow and say “Yes” to a new leaf: the GloboLeaf.

The GloboLeaf stood supreme in the world. Every leaf in every land was linked to it and the GloboLeaf did not need nourishing or be linked to a value source like the other leaves. It was intangible yet powerful because it was the touchstone of value for all the other leaves. The other leaves needed nourishment so that they could grow strong and valuable. They were all allowed different kinds of nourishment – some chose Glittos, some chose Dazzlers or other precious rocks, some even chose the land they owned. They could choose just one or have a matrix of many, just as long as their leaves were linked to the nourishment of something of value. The matrix of valuation was a bit complex but thus far it had proved to be transparent and above manipulation. Once upon a time, the LollaLeaf had been well and truly nourished with Glittos but that was history now.  Now, they would have to go back to the grassroots level and start growing anew.

The Watcher smiled. For ten years now, there had been a money system in place that made sense to everyone. Would it last? Would people remember the aftermath of the LollaLeaf bubble that burst and left so much despair in its wake? For now, things were good. Tomorrow, who knew? At the core of the heart of man, there was discontent and greed. There would be ways to manipulate and corrupt this system too. However, now was a great time and place to be. Tomorrow was another day.

Lollaland And Its Diminishing Glitter

All that glitters isn’t gold. Will the golden sunshine that bathed all of Lollaland through the years ever be felt again? Time was when the streets were paved with gold and the whole world dreamed of this golden destination where everyone seemed to live happily ever after. The LollaTree had seemed to be blessed with everlasting life and the LollaLeaf had been so powerful. When did the rot set in? It had been slow, insidious and behind the scenes.

The Watcher watched and hummed sadly to himself:

Where have all the Glittos gone

Long time passing

Where have all the Glittos gone

Long time ago

Where have all the Glittos gone

Gone to fraudsters  everyone

When will we ever learn?

When will we ever learn?

They built a huge safehouse to house the Glittos many years ago and it was guarded night and day – and guarded well. It was called Torf Xonk and it wasn’t just tough to get in, it was impossible. And the people of Lollaland felt safe and happy that so much wealth was kept secure by their leaders. And the golden sun shone down on its golden people and all was right with their world.

The first signs of everything not being right in the depths of this impregnable safehouse were felt two years ago when some of the Glittos were shipped far away to DragonLand in payment for goods received. Everything seemed all right but the usual checks were done. Small holes were drilled into a few of the Glittos to make sure that they were pure. Imagine the shock of the ones who tested them when they realised that what was gold was just a sheer cover-up and inside was inferior metal. And the markings on the fake Glittos showed that they had been in the safehouse for many years.

So who had taken out the real Glittos and put in fake Glittos in their place? How could they do it in a safehouse that was thought to be the most secure place in all the land? Who had access to the golden vaults in order to make the switch? And who had the authority to switch the Glittos without anyone knowing?

There were tears in the Watcher’s eyes. ‘The good people of the land who work so hard and are so loyal have been robbed by the very people they trusted, the very ones they put in power. The only way to right this wrong is for the people to know the truth and to demand justice. Will they do it?’ he wondered.

Then came the Keeper of the Global Glittos and he asked to see the Glittos that were owed to the ones he worked for. The more he saw, the more he doubted and he, too, began to smell a conspiracy where the Glittos had been quietly and sneakily replaced with metal of much less worth. He demanded an answer and that was his undoing. In order to keep him quiet, they wove a web of lies around him and as he was leaving Lollaland, he was caught and brought back in chains with accusations of wrongdoing.

The Watcher could not believe that in a country known for its bravery and honesty, there would be a few in power who would stoop to sex, lies and gutterscrape in order to frame a person who saw through them. He knew that a few were selling the country out and he prayed the people would open their eyes and see, listen and understand, seek and find the truth.

For too long, any dissent was met with the gun. In Qira, in other lands, at the heart of the conflict was the Glitto because that was what kept the LollaLeaf strong. Far away, an old enemy smiled and let a word fall here, a word there as to why the Keeper of the Global Glittos had been the victim of a conspiracy plot. According to him, the Keeper knew the truth – that there were no more Glittos in the safehouse and all that were there were fake. He knew because there were a few good men in the King’s court, who, under peril of their lives, whispered the truth to him.

This time, there can be no resorting to war, thought the Watcher. Maybe the time had come for the veils of deceit to be rent apart and for truth to shine again. And what of the Glittos? Why, man gave it its value and man can take it away. It’s the real values that you cannot take away. Values of truth, honesty, decency, charity. Suddenly, he smiled. There was hope, he knew because of the people - the people of LollaLand who were honest and hardworking and would get past this, too. He had to have faith that this would pass and the sun would come out and shine in LollaLand again.

Energy Elevators

You hit 40 and there’s that slight slowing down in everything that you do. If you’re lucky, it’s so slight that you don’t even notice it. Then you hit 50 and you know you’re walking just a little bit slower, you take a few seconds more than you used to when you answer questions and it takes longer to put a meal together. That’s just the passage of time. While you can’t really reverse the process of aging, what you can do is to increase your energy levels. Here are a few practical tips on how to keep your energy flowing even as the years creep up on you.

Straighten those shoulders

One of the main reasons for lower energy levels is those slouchy shoulders. Sit on a straight-backed chair, straighten your spine and push those shoulders back. When you are walking, too, tell yourself those shoulders need to go up and back. Suddenly, you’ll find your lungs expanding and a whole lot more air entering them. Ergo – more energy!

Stop holding your tummy in

If you have a large paunch, you need to tackle it with a combination of diet and exercise to get rid of the flab. Holding your stomach in is not the answer and can do more harm than good. When your stomach is sucked in, your diaphragm gets rigid and your lungs cannot expand to their full capacity downwards. Remember, pulling in of the tummy means less air and oxygen, therefore lower energy levels so keep those stomach muscles relaxed.

In some cases, the stomach is taut not because the person pulls it in but because of stress. The easiest way to ease up on the stress is to consciously relax the stomach. It’s amazing how you start feeling better almost immediately.

Walk light

As you grow older, you lose the spring from your step. Well, just put it back. Instead of going ‘thump, thump’, as you walk, follow the heel-toe drill. Let your heel land on the ground first then quickly and lightly transfer the weight onto your toes. This should be done in a fluid, bouncy motion. So you need to walk tall and straight and you need to walk light as well. You’ll find yourself walking faster and being able to walk a lot more.

Eat right

Don’t overstuff yourself – stop eating before you get full is the rule you should live by. Eat food that is good and nutritious – stick with fresh food and you should be fine. When you overeat and you eat food that’s rich and oily, you pay the price as you grow older. Your tummies function great when you are young even though you use them like garbage cans but with age, the tummy starts making its displeasure felt. Light meals just make you feel a lot more energetic. Otherwise a lot of your body’s energy is directed towards digesting the food leaving very little left for other activities.

Also remember to cut down on white flour foods and white sugar. Maybe now is a good time to look at alternative sweeteners – if you must have them – like honey or unrefined sugar.

Think positive

Easier said than done and you wonder why people keep saying that as though you can switch on what you want and switch off what you don’t. No – it’s not easy – not by a long shot. One of the best ways to do it is to try and fill your day with lots to do so there’s no time for those negative thoughts which wear you down and make you feel drained out. Here are a few tips:

·         Take up a hobby you like – gardening, cooking, photography – something to keep your mind and hours in the days occupied.

·         Join a group – people who like what you like. It could be something as simple as a group of friends who meet in the park every evening.

·         Try and smile more often, even when you are alone. It’s hard to think of depressing things when you’re smiling. And you’ll find the world smiling back at you.

·         Find friends you can laugh with and take in a crazy movie or play or pick up a funny DVD, invite a few friends over and have a great laugh over a couple of beers.

·         Sing out loud – when you work around the house, in the shower, in the garden. Your lungs open out and the energy flows.

·         Dance. Put on some music which you like when you’re alone and dance those blues away. It’s incredible how it just perks up you. Don’t go doing any fancy steps though, unless you want to end up with a plaster cast.

·         Do something totally crazy – like learning to scuba dive, taking off on a cruise all by yourself, learning an obscure language, joining a salsa class. It just makes you feel new and energized.

Breathe right

Last and by far the most important, you need to practice how to breathe right. Sometimes, this is all it takes to make you feel young and full of zest again. Shoulders back, tummy relaxed, let each breath go right in. Breathe in to 4 counts, hold for 4 counts, exhale for 4 counts then pause for 2 counts. Don’t let it be a strain. Just open up your lungs and breathe in as far as it feels comfortable. When your system is well-oxygenated, you’ll feel so good. You don’t need to go pay some guru top dollar to make you feel good – you can do it sitting all by yourself in your own home.

You can advance to a bit of meditation too. Sit in a quiet place and breathe to these counts for 5 minutes. As you breathe, concentrate on your breath going in and out of your nostrils. When your attention is on your breath, the chatter in your brain stops. It’s that easy and that simple. With a bit of practice, you’ll be meditating like a pro in no time.

That’s all there is to it. There’s absolutely no way you should let age get the better of you. You can be alive and energetic as the years go by if you only put a few of these easy tips into practice.

Philip Pullman and the Republic of Heaven

I discovered Pullman some years ago. My daughter was ten and she picked up his Northern Lights, the first of his Dark Materials Trilogy in the children’s section of the British Library. She was looking for something else like Harry Potter and she probably liked what she read on the back cover. She didn’t put that book down till she had finished it and then she said we had to read it too. What a wonderful discovery that was! We devoured his three Dark Materials books – the other two are The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, recommended them to all our friends when they were looking for something to read and looked for every book he’s written in the bookstores. (The movie The Golden Compass, based on his first book is very watchable too). Truth be told, I didn’t enjoy his other books as much as I did the trilogy but it’s unfair to compare.

Speaking of truth, one of the most interesting devices that the Dark Materials books feature is the Alethiometer which is rather like a compass pointing you to the truth. (That's why the film is titled The Golden Compass). The little heroine in the stories, Lyra, can read it because she does so instinctively. Does Heaven really lie about us in our infancy? She can’t do that once she falls in love with Will and maybe loses those clouds of glory trailing behind us in our innocence. It's another world, different experiences and yet, the feelings are so universal. The Dark Materials trilogy is all about the old order of heaven and earth passing away and a new order coming into being where the Republic of Heaven will have everyone equal, respecting one another, believing in what they like, doing what they like and living life fully. An idealistic world but what a tumultuous ride to get there.

It's a magical place he leads us into, a place where every person has an alter-ego, usually an animal that best personifies the person. It is this 'other' that makes the person complete, that brings about balance. When the two are separated, the person is as good as dead. The stories in his book exemplify this theme and make it come alive. The world is filled with good and evil people but there is a constant struggle to attain perfection and this is what makes it different. It is, on the surface, a simple children's story but scratch the surface and you'll find embedded within, the seeds of morality, of idealism and of quantum physics.

Then, one birthday, a friend gave me a gift – his latest book. I doubt most Christians will open this book, forget about reading it, once they see the title. I know my parents won’t, even though they are the most wonderful people alive. However, if you leave your beliefs aside for a while – a suspension of belief if you will, and read it like you would a story, it’s a wonderful read. It’s the story we all know, told with a twist and the thing is, it’s almost believable. If you were to go beyond that and think of the issues that are brought up, maybe we all have to agree that what has happened to the Church is a far cry from what the Saviour taught.

You need to read it to fully appreciate it and you also need to go beyond the words to the deep meaning that the story contains. As an aside, the book was printed with white jackets and gold printing and with black jackets and gold printing. An advertising gimmick – but so relevant, I thought! Pullman wrote this book as part of Canongate’s ‘The Myths Series’.

There’s been so much in Philip Pullman’s writing that I’ve connected with. He writes in such a wonderful way that draws you in, makes you feel like you're a part of the book. Here are a few nuggets from his books, his essays and his talks. I hope you find them as powerful as I do.

Money and Marriage: Should they go together like a horse and carriage?

More marriages break up because of money than any other reason. Not infidelity, not sexual incompatibility, not looks, not tastes. Those too, yes, but money is the one right on top of the list. Money is the root of most marital discords or, to be more precise, a couple’s differing attitudes to money.
On the 10^th of September, there was a snippet relating to this in the New York Times. Most readers would have missed it what with all that brouhaha over the LHC that day. However, if one were to think about it practically, it makes a lot of sense. Divorce lawyers who see so much of it up close will tell you that most divorce cases are about fights over money.  Now why is money or the differing attitudes to money the No.1 home-wrecker?

Money vs. Attitude towards Money
In most marriages, it usually isn’t about the actual money over which you brawl. It’s about your attitudes to money. This doesn’t mean that you need to be exactly like your partner – just that your attitudes to money need to be compatible. One partner could see money as the be-all and end-all of everything while the other could see it as merely the means to an end. Now if that end means spending everything you have on a whim, the tension between the two is bound to build up.

Money is not a bad word
Money is such an important part of any relationship. The trouble is most of us are brought up not to mention it. So what passes for good manners could just be detrimental to addressing one of the most important concerns in a marriage. The sooner we realise that it isn’t money that is the root of all evil but the love of money that is, the better for all of us.

Money and Love are not mutually exclusive
The general perception is, it has to be one or the other. So you marry for love or you marry for money. However, when love flies out that window or door, it could well be because you didn’t have the practical sense to talk about money and see what both thought about it.

Money: A comfort zone or a square of tension?
When the attitudes to money are compatible, any financial problem can be worked out from the same side, not from opposite sides. The trouble with being incompatible where the attitude to money is concerned is that very often couples, when first faced with the differences, don’t really talk about it. So getting upset over a partner’s attitude to money could mean blowing off steam at something totally unrelated. Again, it’s that innate reluctance to talk about what is the main offender.

Love needs a Foundation
Money makes a good foundation to a marriage. (Religion does too, but couples with the same religious inclination can split over money!) Couples need to be different for the spark to be kept alive, yes. However, they can set future goals when both view money in a similar light. It just makes it easier for love to grow and not get strangled somewhere in all that mire of unspoken monetary tensions.

Cash Compatibility
If you’re cash-compatible, the chances of you being in for a long innings are pretty good. And maybe all the moonlight and roses will be part of your happy memories for years to come!

The thing is, this isn’t about what’s right and what’s not. Maybe that’s why attitudes to money can be a good starting point. It presupposes no value judgements. All you need to do is to try and see that you choose someone who has the same attitude to money as you do. If you love money to the exclusion of everything else, find out if your partner does too. If you prefer to live on love and fresh air, with just enough to get you through life, find someone who thinks the same. So much of our lives revolve around money: savings, loans, mortgages, credit, investments, salaries. The first flush of love and attraction usually blinds us to the more practical areas of a relationship but when the haze clears up a bit, if you want what you have to last, take a money compatibility test before you walk up that aisle.