A day off work today, to attend a conference on the subject of neglect. Worse than physical abuse itself, because at least then you know someone is interested in you, if only to beat your brains out. And brain scans confirm the terrible damage inflicted by the process of ignoring: compared to children reared in a loving environment, huge areas of brain are dark, starved of input they will never, can never, grow. And the worst problem? Neglected children are hard to like: they don't respond to affection or indeed to any other kind of attention. So adults, even professional carers tend instinctively to walk on by to some more responsive child. Bitter experience has taught the neglected child that nothing comes of interaction with others; they become insular, isolated and irrevocably lost.
This afternoon (I funked out of the more technical post-prandial session)I settled into watching Steve Davis battle it out with another old-timer, John Higgins, at the BETFRED World Championship (isn't that revolting, by the way? their sickening logo is festooned everywhere)
I used to hate Steve, with his cock-suredness and emphasis on percentage rather than inspiration, but slowly I have learned to like him. Now, the advancing years having reduced his thatch and dimmed his arrogance, he has become a much more human character, not so much "interesting" (as Spitting Image cruelly dubbed him) as venerable and, dare I say it, lovable?
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