Gratitude

It hit me this morning, as I was pouring ground Mocha Africana (from Mövenpick) into the cafetière, that 'gratitude' sounds like a conflation of 'great' and 'attitude', while 'latitude' sounds like a conflation of 'less' and 'attitude'. Then I said to myself, "That's a great idea, but it's a silly one, so I shall just feel good about it for a while and forget it." But then a very present help in time of moving came along, and I remembered to be grateful again, and so I couldn't quite forget the idea.

I am grateful to many people, who I suppose should remain relatively unnamed - this principle has always guided my blogging (except in the case of public figures). But how is it possible to express gratitude without names? With great difficulty. I think however that those who are being deliberately unnamed will know who they are. I elect to use verse, and use it more or less randomly, as namelessness permits.

Dancer and daughter;
Destroyer all black;
Grouchy young elflord
And clearer of stack;
Beckoning binder
And novelty earth;
All arbitrary
Reminder of worth;
Spider at centre,
Despoiler of shelves,
All should be happy
And proud of yourselves.

There are at least ten people hidden there, some more obvious than others. And of course, because it would be unfair or ungainly to try to squeeze more than sixty more names into verse, I must also thank those I have taught this year; none of my official students are (un)named above. I must thank them for bearing the burden of being taught by a strange person whose beliefs about education seem not to coincide with most other people's. I will try to be better next year, and God bless you all.