Episode 09 - Talking About the Weather

Seemingly endless rain is lashing down on old England as my friends in New England write describing snowdrifts many feet deep in their ‘once in a hundred years’ storm. I am away in London for New Year, spending the evening peacefully alone by choice, reading, meditating and bringing you this piece.A year ago I wrote to my friend Dougald, having just found words for a rebellion in me against the disdain I sensed in descriptions of ordinary people, (especially ordinary women), in much contemporary political writing, with which I might otherwise have sympathy. It still stands. Disdain is the barely-polite face of dehumanisation. This New Year I reaffirm my openness to unsolicited friendly greetings, ‘pointless’ sentences exchanged about looming clouds, shared laughter and almost talismanic weather forecasts with strangers as we duck into shop doorways to avoid the next deluge of a coastal Sou’westerly. Good weather to you, both inner and outer.First published here with full transcript, notes and more images, January 2nd 2023. Get full access to Uncivil Savant at carolineross.substack.com/subscribe