A View from the Edge: the Martin Foreman WebSite

Martin Foreman is a writer of fact, fiction and opinion.
He tries not to get the three confused.

every Tuesday and Friday

1 October 2002

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Previously on
A View from the Edge...

Turning over a new leaf Well, the Equinox has been and gone and, you'll be glad to know, I have written down my Autumn Resolution, the goal I set myself each year to improve both myself and the world I live in.

Home is where the memory is This visit, as every visit, I am reminded that you can't go home again. There is much about Edinburgh I love, in particular the lack of so much that makes London unpleasant - the litter, the rudeness, the petty crime and the sense of rootlessness in a city whose inhabitants always seem to come from elsewhere - but my childhood memories keep clashing with today's reality.

Foucault's Nightmare I was so excited that I walked straight into my boss's office without knocking, the proof copies of the prospectus for the Mile High Club in my hot little hand. I was flushed, not because it was the middle of summer, nor the time of the month and not because an eighteen-year-old Denzel Washington with muscles had just shown me his hard copy at the printer's. No, what was sending the blood coursing through my body was the fact that the Mile High was my first big project and I was as excited as a twelve-year old who'd lost her virginity to the hunkiest member of the latest boy band.

Road to Destruction I've decided that it's time to ban private car ownership, at least in the UK. Cars are expensive, destructive and, despite the protests of many car owners, a luxury not a necessity. Cars create more problems than they resolve, and the solutions put forward to resolve those problems create more problems in return.

Poverty and Health Poverty deprives populations of clean water and sanitation, a good diet, education and comprehensive vaccination programmes. Poverty weakens health infrastructures, limits the numbers of medical personnel, reduces access to many drugs and encourages corruption - the private selling of state-provided services or drugs. Poverty is not the only factor underlying poor health - such factors as recreational drug use and violence also play a part - but poverty both undermines the foundations of good health and reduces options for the ill.

A Sense of Smell Not only am I not bisexual, but I don't know anyone who is. I have friends of different races, sexes, sexualities, ages, nationalities, religions, personality types, heights, hair colour, employment status and artistic abilities, but I have no friend or colleague that calls themself bisexual. In fact, the last time I came across anyone who called himself bisexual was a long time ago at university, when several of us used the term while we adjusted to the fact that we were really gay. To be honest, I'm not convinced that true bisexuality - in the sense of equal sexual and emotional attraction to both men and women - exists, except perhaps as a tiny minority of the population.

Read!! Buy!!

The Sound of Silence
Are you reading this in the office, or at home? Or in an internet cafe? For the moment, let's assume you're at home, and if you're not at home, imagine you are.

If you're at home, you probably have the radio on, or a CD, or the television. If you do, switch it off.

Are there other people in the house? If so, close the door, or ask them to leave the room. And if for some reason they can't - perhaps they're doing the ironing, or the cooking or watching the television that you haven't switched off - then stop reading now. Bookmark this page and come back to it when you know you'll be alone.

And now, you are alone. Just you and the screen.

Sit up. Head raised, shoulders back. And at the same time, relax. Feel the tension drain from your body, from your neck, from your face. Let your hands rest on the table or on your lap.

Now read. Read every single line that follows.

Go back to the last words I wrote: "Read every single line that follows" and read each line again. Read the silences. Read them slowly. Stare at each one.

Read a second and a third time. And when you read the second time, listen to the sounds around you - distant traffic, rain, a child, a far-off radio, a passing plane, whatever. Close your eyes and listen to the sound. Listen until it becomes strange to you, then open your eyes again.

The third time you read - this time even more slowly - keep your eyes open as you stare at each line and let ideas flow into and through your mind. If there is one that makes you smile, hold it for a few seconds before letting it go.

Then, when you're ready, move on.

Below these words is a line, and then an advertisement for a book. To the left of this column a series of words, paragraphs that lead off onto other internet pages. Look carefully at the book cover before you decide whether to click it. Read each paragraph slowly before you decide whether to click on the title.

And when you've finished reading through this page, accept my thanks. I hope it brought something other than words to you and I hope that you and those around you enjoy the rest of today. Turn on the radio if you want, or the television, or keep and listen to the sound of silence, today and every day.

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Page last updated
4 October 2002

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