It was refreshing to break the fast in a bigger group yesterday. Today we're back to the dynamic duo - though I must say my partner would be my first choice of someone to break anything alongside. Fi Fi and Fa Fa have both kept up the fast so far, and earned a few dollars from Noi for doing so. (Yes, there can be an economic basis for piety in the young, and we're prepared to exploit that for the greater good.) Of course, the fact that youngsters can handle the hardships of the month with something like equanimity is an embarrassment for those of us who'd like to think we're doing something special. Equally obvious, except for when we allow ourselves to think we are somehow the whole world, or the bit of it that really counts, is the fact that the fast is a shared experience in which a fair proportion of the world's population is participating. That is reassuring and overwhelming in roughly equal proportions.
Something unusual for me: in the late morning, on my way to the staffroom, I had a vision of a plate of heavily salted, freshly fried chips. I do not regard myself as a particularly imaginative character, but those chips were possessed of a weight and majesty rare indeed. That I was able to put them to one side - mentally - has greatly enhanced my self-esteem. But I am troubled by the notion they may come back to haunt me. Possibly with sausages. The ignominy of it: to be haunted by one's dinner.
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