arms I twisted, though barely, and cajoled into filling the first few spaces on the "Member Profiles" page. Now, our Membership includes intellects from all over the world. There is "Pramod" from India; "Dsaviolink" from Qatar; "MGraham" from Scotland; and "Will", who just joined today, from Australia. Not to mention the Americans and Asians. It is all rather interesting to read a fellow Expats' profile and think about where they come from, not just their locale, but, in life. It is not that typical today to find chaps recommending the kind of books you have recommended. It has been my opinion that modern technology in the form of television, computers (forgive me) and etcetera, are becoming substitutes for past modes of stimulation. As a result, we are becoming more secular - why leave the home to trudge out in the cold to a cafe' when you can stay in one's comfy clothes, click the knobby button on the remote and watch other people doing it instead? Where would the expatriates of the 1920's be today, if they had the options for distractions we have. At the Cafe' Select brandishing each other with Goethe, rigadig tunes and a dry vermouth? Possibly not. Who knows! I rather think there is a chance, being as easily stuffed as we are today, they mayn't even have written their great books. We are growing stupid too. Really, I think we are. Forgive me if you believe otherwise. But think of the poor, cold (for I am cold, writing this right now, my fingertips freezing, and I have central heating, though I can liken the temperature to that of the Brontes household due to the awful increase in oil) Brontes, toiling about their cottage with nothing else to do - what else would there be - but to read behemoth books; and crook their fingers and ruin their eyes writing sheathes of manuscripts that may or may not ever be published, only to keep themselves entertained. Can you but imagine the gains they must have made in their studies. Is it no wonder their simple upbringing produced such tremendous genius? "To have the time," we mutter. I have heard mutterings of this sort. Our time is wasted. Indeed it is, on the sort of sop we spend it on.
So then there are you. Relics of an earlier generation. Interested in improving your time. Improving your minds and widening your depths of perception.
I salute you. I look forward to hearing from you. And I hope you spread the word about us.
En Sante', Jenn Bierman - Editor
