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The 52:52:52 project, launching both on this site and on social media in early 2024 will help you address 52 issues with 52 responses over 52 weeks.

A Mundane Comedy is Dominic Kelleher's new book, which will be published in mid 2024. The introduction is available here and further extracts will appear on this site and on social media in the coming months.

This site addresses what's changing, in our own lives, in our organisations, and in wider society. You'll learn about key changes across more than 150 areas, ranging from ageing and time, through nature and animals, to kindness and love...and very much else inbetween.

Halcyon's aim is to help you reflect on how you can better deal with related change in your own life.

Death

On Dante

Dante

 

Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" is an epic poem written in the early 14th century, divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

  1. Inferno:

    • Dante finds himself lost in a dark forest and guided by the Roman poet Virgil.
    • The pair descends through the nine circles of Hell, each representing different sins and their corresponding punishments.
    • Notable figures from history and mythology are encountered, and Dante learns about the consequences of sin.
    • Satan resides at the centre of Hell, and Dante and Virgil eventually climb down Satan's body to reach the other side of the Earth.
  2. Purgatorio:

On Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas

 

As we pass the 70th anniversary of Dylan Thomas' death - or rather his work - has remained dear to me, one way of another, for nearly 40 years, from his poems, through the biographies I consumed at Edinburgh and subsequently, a profile on Great Lives and an excellent BBC commentary on Under Milk Wood.

During a guided "green meditation" in the summer of 2023, while focusing my attention on the beauty of a nearby plant, I was reminded of Thomas' The force that through the green fuse drives the flower.

On Legacy

Christopher Hitchens

 

28th June marks the anniversary of the funeral services of someone very dear in my own life, and in the lives of many others.

As people tried to terms with the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II and on the 21st anniversary of the September 11th attacks, I was reminded of this earlier post on legacy...especially the words in bold.

In the last months of his life, a physically weakened Christopher Hitchens travelled to the Texas Freethought Convention and while there, an eight-year-old girl asked Hitchens what books she should consider reading. Intrigued, Hitchens spent 15 minutes chatting with the youngster and sketching out a reading list (below). His last words to her? "Lots of love...remember the love bit..."

What's Changing? - Legacy

Legacy

 

Please see below selected recent legacy-related change.

 

See also:

 

August 2022

  • A London museum decided to return 72 items looted by British troops more than a century ago to Nigeria. The antiquities, which include highly prized “Benin bronze” sculptures, were taken from Benin City, located in present-day southern Nigeria, during an 1897 colonial incursion.

 

May 2022

On Ancestors

Ancestry

 

If the past is replayed too fast, life seems futile, and humanity resembles water flowing from a tap, straight down the drain.  A film of history for today needs to be in slow motion, showing every person who ever lived as a star, though dimly visible in a night sky, a history still unexplored Theodore ZeldinAn Intimate History of Humanity

A call to action. Time to explore these unexplored histories together.