Ever Decreasing Circles

- Jonathan Self

I became interested in the whole philosophy thanks to an article sent to me by an elderly housebound cousin, who passes each day snipping out items from the newspaper and posting them off to family and friends. My mother did the same in her last years and, although she’s been dead for three decades, I still miss the weekly envelope stuffed with clippings.

By and large, she sent me cuttings containing advice of one sort or another. A typical batch might cover such subjects as what to do if you encounter an angry crowd, how to prevent hair loss and the benefits of eating several cloves of raw garlic before breakfast. however, she would also include book reviews, recipes, gardening tips and editorial errors, including a ‘spot the ball’ competition in which the ball was still in the picture, and headlines of the ‘County spelling bee postponed’ and ‘China may be using sea to hide submarines’ variety.

After she died, we found one final cutting stapled to her will. it concerned the exorbitant cost of funerals and she had written across the top: ‘Get three quotes.’