The Rolling English Road

By G. K. Chesterton

Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,

The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.

A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,

And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;

A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread

The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.

I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire,

And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire;

But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed

To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made,

Where you and I went down the lane with ale-mugs in our hands,

The night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin Sands.

His sins they were forgiven him; or why do flowers run

Behind him; and the hedges all strengthening in the sun?

The wild thing went from left to right and knew not which was which,

But the wild rose was above him when they found him in the ditch.

God pardon us, nor harden us; we did not see so clear

The night we went to Bannockburn by way of Brighton Pier.

My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,

Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,

But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,

And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death;

For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,

Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.

Attention Pollution

I read an article last week on phone distraction stuff - I didn't save it, I have many of them already and it wasn't the best - but I can't stop thinking about the term attention pollution. The author's angle identifies other people as part of the problem. It only takes one person to whip their phone out, to trigger the space, and to pollute the attention of others there - to draw awareness away from the present moment. & that sputtering "should I be checking my phone now? what about now?" attention drain is part of why they're a problem, and it's worsened whenever someone gets theirs out reminding you of yours. That's going to be an unpopular take, but I vibe with it. I can't tell you how impacted I am by my partner's phone use, because he's just sort of...absent...for most of the day.

I guess it's a bit like - your event only needs one smoker and it's a smoking event; or, you only need one person in your area to be driving and your area sounds like cars now.