There is usually a wood pigeon or two in the lime tree on the corner opposite our house. It is a comfortable place to sit if you are a wood pigeon, with an interesting enough view.Sometimes a resource turns up, which you didn't know existed but which you realize must now be hard to live without. Witness the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds http://www.rspb.org.uk/ website. It would have saved me a blush or two if I had thought of checking it earlier. Click "blue tit" or "great tit" for example, and not only will you have a picture, notes on its habitat and behaviour, but a sample of its song.
At the traffic lights, the road is clear in both directions, but the light is red. Everyone crosses except a small boy and his mother, who is setting a good example. Sometimes, I think to myself, this is the way that morals work..
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Returning to the YMCA in Geneva (doors close at 10.30 pm, hence the rush) I passed through a virtually deserted city yet found myself constrained by an aura of Swissness to await the green light at pedestrian crossings. But this wasn't anything to do with morality. The reverse side of the Swiss personality is that it is considered good citizenship to report minor malfeasances to the police. I am sure the Swiss believe in heaven (the entrance resembling, no doubt, the foyer of a bank) but can "goodness" be carried too far and might those virtuous individuals be surprised in an after-life when they find themselves in a limbo of indebtedness and gutters full of sweet-papers? There is a certain amount of schadenfreude to be had from the fact that the country's largest bank, UBS, is in trouble with the US financial authorities and is in line to pay a monumental fine.
And why the Geneva YMCA? The world is not ready for that story.
Much to ponder here; most of all the YMCA in Geneva. When does the story break? I don't think that waiting for the lights to change in a traffic-less street, is in itself moral behaviour. Just a similar process.
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