The Invisible Man

I have been re-reading Michael Coren's biography of H.G.Wells: "The Invisible Man  The Life and Liberties of H.G.Wells".  Most interesting.    I don't really have the energy to do it justice here.  Wells successfully forecast that WW2 would break out in 1939 - though he got many other things wrong.  He  was a strong proponent of eugenics (to be fair, many were at that time), and a big proponent of the League of Nations and a one world government.   Though I think he was disillusioned by the end.  And what a difficult man he must have been to be married to.  And what amazing energy he had as a writer!

When he was seventy years old, Literary London gathered together to celebrate, and he made a speech in which after thanking everyone for coming, he said:  "Yet all the time I will confess that the mellow brightness of this occasion is not without a shadow. I hate being seventy.... Tonight I am very much in the position of a little boy at a lovely party, who has been given quite a lot of jolly toys and who has spread his play about the floor.  Then comes his nurse, "Now Master Bertie," she says, "it's getting late. Time you began to put away your toys."  I don't in least want to put away my toys..."

I too don't in the least want to put away my toys. But I am not so far off my own seventieth now.

We were meant to live forever.

Captain Butterfly and his sandwiches left early for conservation purposes, and he travelled back via some lovely picture of gulls near Worthing.   I managed to get the dusting done and caught up on the washing and ironing. And had a hot meal ready for Himself the moment he came through the door.  Good timing on both our parts.   It was baked potato with beans and salad. And the usual yoghurt.  And it was sunny so I was able to do my studying on the balcony. We are back in Genesis at the moment - telling us where it all went wrong and why our lives are so short now, but also telling us how Jehovah is putting it right.   We are beginning to see the emerging of Israel, with the sons of Jacob.  I talked to Jackie and Audrey on the phone, and Dorothy of South Island sent an encouraging email from her latest ski trip.  The operation is looming closer and closer...   If it all goes horribly wrong I may have to put my toys away a lot sooner than I thought.