BLOG 7 #Progress
I think my dear husband has said enough for a while so I am going to send this message, albeit a brief one. I find myself extremely perturbed at the present state of the beautiful planet which I left over a century ago. As I look down from this lofty vantage point I see nothing but grim instances of extremist outrages, over population and consequent mass starvation, growing natural disasters, political abominations. I ventured to interrupt Charles, who was deep in discussion with his regular companions Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton (I can barely get his attention these days), to enquire whether he still believed in the evolutionary progress of mankind given these manifestations. He simply smiled benignly and said to me, ‘Dearest Emma, yes such instances are depressing. But if you concede that mankind has indeed progressed from its apelike form over all those thousands of generations, then at what point do you consider that progression halted?’ His companions nodded sagely at me and smiled also. I fled in embarrassment, feeling outfaced by male intellectual arrogance. But I shall marshal my forces and respond when I feel able. Meanwhile I continue to pray for the planet, and will convey my prayers directly to God when I am next granted audience.
Emma Darwin.
P.S. People are now communicating with me having discovered the modern story of the search for my private journal, which they can now apparently obtain through some miraculous means called a Kindle (does that mean it will burn easily? – I do hope so). I shudder at the thought that our private lives will now be open to the curious eyes of the whole world. Charley says we should be proud, but then it’s not his intimate thoughts which are being exposed!
