EDITOR’S LETTER

of those talented individuals who knows how everyone else should live. Such folk are always sure about what is right and wrong, and what is ordained by God as good and proper. They point out where others err, and like to share their opinion on what should be happening in others’ lives, careers, with their children, their homes and even in their gardens… Their expertise is flawless and boundless. Me? Like Socrates (as reported by Plato), all I know is that I know nothing. At the small country school of my long- ago, in my happy childhood, there were occasional taunts between “Catholic dogs” and the “Proddie hogs”. None of it was mean, nor taken seriously, although the vexed topic of mixed marriages still had some adults whispering – annoyingly just out of earshot of interested children such as Big Ears me. I always loved an adult scandal. A ‘mixed’ marriage was a blanket term that covered every transgression from a union between two versions of Christianity to inter- racial alliances. Pre- marriage pregnancy was another tut-tutting subject in my youth. Catching a neighbour in flagrante throwing single- use plastic bags in the recycling bin is probably today’s equivalent crime. So everything changes and yet is the same ( plus ça change, c’est plus la même chose as the French put it with a disdainful shoulder shrug). This magazine seeks to write about people doing something worthwhile, something bigger than the pursuit of their own self-satisfaction. We seek kindness and smile upon talent, in whatever circumstance it flourishes. We love diversity and yet we feel we are not diverse enough. We are working hard on that. We love the stimulation that new and different ways of thinking brings us and we feel more energized because we are not all the same. We welcome into our pages people who, in previous and perhaps less-tolerant times, might have had to stand on the sidelines. Not in our world: step forth, if you are courageous, kind and interesting. Stand in the limelight and tell us how you see things. We are not afraid to listen. In fact, you will uplift us, and reinforce that the world is made up of many different but equally glorious people.