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HOLY WEEKS

SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO BREAK AN EGG AT EASTER

Several major religions are observing solemn, important festivals this month - holy days, holy weeks. Eyewear's team will be taking some time off, to be with their families and friends, and reflect, in their various ways, on this time of returning light.

Meanwhile, we have seen, in the past few days, inhumanity at the heart of our capitalist system (where it has been, hidden, for too long) - the decision to drag a doctor, bloodied and beaten, from a United Airlines plane he had lawfully bought a ticket for is yet another instance of the total decline in compassion and empathy rooting itself in a business-led model that ignores the value of life beneath the numbers.

Publishing, too, is not immune. Too often, authors, agents, and publishers, seek to profit from relationships that would be better off pursued for higher aims, of art, solidarity and creativity. Sharing is not much part of this dog-eat-dog Darwinian world, that pushes each against the other. It strikes me as one of the last paradoxes artists and writers avoid confronting - that the people who serve them (agents) utilise ruthless tactics worthy of a Hedge Fund manager, too often.

Business. Well, yes - but whether one is a vast airline, or a small press, a large agency, or a new author, we should seek to turn the work week away from a Cavalry of whips, jeers, taunts, blood and stones.

Yet, the Easter message is, Christ walked in that infernal district also, to paraphrase Lowry, once-read, less so now. Each of us to bear some measure of indignity and cruelty. But let us withhold the pain for others as we see them stumble past. Let's help people get to their work, patients, family, loved ones, their homes, in peace.

It is increasingly obvious that the mortal realm is bright and full of pain, as a songwriter once said. But some of that light can be from a simply warm day, when so many people clearly just want to lie out, or play, or spend time with those they care about. Simple cares, in a dark world.

No message here, really, but the age-old one - try and be kind to others. And yourself.

We will be back, end of April.
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