Mind Games

I deliberately posted a very downbeat entry yesterday, exaggerating a few things for dramatic effect. The intention was to see if I got any reaction, but you either know me too well or just don’t care! As a psychological experiment in human behaviour, I think we can safely say it failed miserably.
Why did I do it? The glib answer is “because I can”, but I came up with the idea after watching Christian Horner’s histrionics at the British Grand Prix, after his driver, Max Verstappen, was pushed off the track by title rival Lewis Hamilton. Given that Max was not seriously injured - and on any other corner it would have been a “racing incident” - you got the impression that his rant was more about gaining the moral high ground and possibly influencing the stewards into handing out a harsher penalty. In much the same way that Dominic Cummings is now slagging off his erstwhile boss!
I think the point I was trying to make was that we are continually being drip fed bad news stories, worst case scenario predictions and what we should have done last year. It’s amazing how the benefit of 20/20 hindsight has made everyone a pandemic management expert. But I ignore most of what I read and hear in favour of what I see with my own eyes. As an intelligent adult, I like to think I can see past the attention grabbing headlines, work out what is actually going on and then take the appropriate action to protect myself and those around me.
As regards today’s photo, I have to thank Mrs C for letting me use one of the pieces she created for her City and Guilds Creative Embroidery course. The subject was “Victorian Theatre” and this is her take on Yorick from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. She actually bought an anatomically correct skull from a medical supplies outlet, and then embellished it to represent rotting flesh and worms. Nowadays it lives in a display cabinet where it is regarded with equal degrees of pride (because Mrs C passed the course and gained her C&G qualification), curiosity (visitors have to ask what it is) and uneasiness (when we tell them).