In the Night Hour Be Discerning
A Note to myself really ... written up in 2019 but from its draft circa 2008 ... those great, and tumultuous, years in Liverpool
In the night hour
Reflect upon the day’s events
Consider my fridge list
Post-it note
Magnetic reminder
Smile at the list I made,
to do the lists I made
yesterday,
the day before
last week
last month…
and throw the pencil away
Consider the impact
my life has on others.
I must never presume it is good,
even positive…
Examine my heart
Examine my motives
and think of the people
I might have slighted
Now, at this juncture,
Go into the kitchen
Make a drink
and settle down by the fire
Take my shoes off
Maybe, better still,
Take a long hot bath
A soak
And don that thick
velvety white bath robe
That reaches the shins
of the five star suites
Wear nothing else
Hang free as the saying goes
but perfectly respectable
not making a spectacle
even though I’m alone
Be at peace with myself
And at peace with the world
And boot into touch
that accursed false guilt
Don’t beat myself up
with the shortcomings I find.
Consider them, yes...
Resolve a different approach
the next encounter:
that event
that person
that job
that sex
A sip of wine
Or warmth of Tea
spiced with cinnamon
That favourite coffee bean
balancing a ginger beer.
Think the accounts through …
Have I employed staff well?
Have I taken on too many?
Have I taken on too few?
Is my stock correct?
Is any surplus to requirement?
And the most difficult thing of all
The most difficult sentiment to grapple
Regardless of religions,
office manuals,
Books on positive thinking
Books on spiritual development
And all that lot…
Don’t automatically trust
Look down the path of history
A century is more than enough...
See broken promises
Blatant and deliberate acts of treachery
Promulgated by flourish of
a fountain pen!
The formal handshake
Even that odious courteous bow
Even more that compulsory smiling groupy
And listen carefully…
The person turns away
And overreaches himself
till in hearing
with a lofty pronouncement
“I have him now”
Think on this.
Even Hitler smiled.
And thinking back to false guilt
If my friend opines about me
with “The Lord has told me …”
Flee.
Flee.
Flee.
When someone says
in judgment of me
that the Lord has told them
then, simply put,
it is akin to the InterCity
smashing through missile-like
and that friendship has ended
Kenneth Thomas Webb
Liverpool
December 31, 2021
All Rights Reserved
United Kingdom - Austria - Germany - Australia - New Zealand - Canada - USA
© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022
One of the Fifteen Founding Members of Leaders Lodge
First Written November 11, 2019 from an early draft circa 2008
Republished March 26, 2021
Banner Image Courtesy of S J O and from her Private Collection - all rights thereto reserved to her
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
