Tros

Davis Peter

Description

This ebook fictional tale begins at the start of the twentieth century, this story line picks up events as a group of final year students reflect upon their last year of University experience after completing their final course examinations, sitting out in the mid summer sun. Some are happy some are sad.The text and story line take part within the modern world which they become a part of.

Informations

• Publié par: Peter Davis
• Date de parution: 21 septembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783018079
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

T ROS
Contents
Out
Journey
Lectures
Warm or Cold
Colonials
Return
Autonomy
Flame
Information
Art
Tool
Energy
Hidden
Touch
Desire
Established
It
Out
The sounds of early morning life wheels rolling over gravel on their journey out into the world a vehicle conveying the same person to work
A day is beginning. In summer windows are left open overnight. In winter windows are closed tight, and a muffled sound greets the dawn.
Noises indicate the time of day. There is tranquillity in the early morning, when birdsong is clearly heard drifting on the cool air. Then it is displaced by the drone of heavy goods vehicles, and the continuous clash of pneumatic tyres on tarmac surfaces fills most of the day. Vehicles convey items from where they are manufactured to where they will be used: this is interrupted by a banging hammer, which demonstrates its power through the noise it makes.
Then there are the quiet hours of Sunday morning, following the loud shouts and cheers of the Saturday afternoon match for the side who won the game. Total silence suggests a defeat with a very slow walk home for the other team.
It s a summer s day. Swift birds move around in a smooth, gliding flight, and warm air aids their turning and diving to catch a fly.
Humans just lie in the sunlight to change their skin from pure white, to off-white, to red or to light brown while resting on the ground.
She s young and in her late teens - maybe twenty or twenty-one: that fresh zone, where it is difficult to tell. Her gaze said that there was a woman within who wanted to get out from behind the shapely curves of her body. She has a passion to be released and a desire to be satisfied by strong gentle hands touching then releasing, with a slow movement that caresses as they leave.
She s a jewel in female form.
It s warm, and it s summertime.
Hi, Sally. How are your finals going? enquired George, very gently. He was softly spoken, with a voice that could soothe stress and be comforting.
She was one that he had captured in his second year. She was a fresher wanting to borrow his notes and any other knowledge he could supply - particularly the sort of knowledge that is not taught in college, only passed on from student to student. Not that he held her long. She escaped from him to hook an athletic type in the engineering department.
With difficulty, Sally replied. These examiners always appear to know the things you did not mug up on, and are able to bring in stuff from the first and second year as their lead-in requirement.
It s the natural dip in emotions after any stressful event. You feel much worse than it is. Go away and forget all about it. The results, when they arrive, will be much better than you think now, at this point in time. Take it as good advice from a seasoned traveller.
We are not all as bright as you.
Flattery will win you the world. You are on the correct track. It will take you further than academic pursuits. Success or failure Who was it who said,
If I can treat those two impostors just the same ?
Kipling.
The latter seems to be more acceptable in the modern world, for it does not challenge managers - who like to be iterative mimics, for an easy life - and who let others, not them, do the strenuous act of thinking.
As he listened to his own words George realised that the year he had spent as the student union president, always hearing the woes of others, had turned him into an agony aunt. It made him aware that meritocracy was very much an ivory tower concept, and in the real world there were always those wanting to undermine it and degrade it. They saw it as a target to attack for their own salvation, and if they could throw muck at a bright shiny graduate it was the achievement of their very limited day.
The arrival of James (the boyfriend) raised her spirits. James - like all Jameses everywhere - was called Jimmy, and he gave her a big reassuring hug. Jimmy always saw the world as it was built and marvelled at the genius who put it together. He realised that it would discipline humans more effectively than any government. It had an inbuilt mechanism to deal with all the elements contained in it that humans call problems. This he found very attractive and it made life tolerable for him, particularly when he found himself among people who annoyed him because of their flippant nature towards everything around them.
Many of them were from that section of society who have large stone buildings constructed for them so that they can demonstrate the verbosity of people who are subjective rather than objective, while the rest of humanity live their lives. They are like Scottish hill bogs - best avoided when travelling on foot. Not that many do walk on Scottish hill bogs: they take to the car at every opportunity. The exceptions are the hillwalkers on holiday, who do it for the pleasure of the fresh bracing air.
Jimmy s thoughts on the natural world brought to mind the word sustainability , which has crept into everyday language in recent times. Sustainability only started being practised 500 years ago when the native people in North America were proud to state that they hunted the same family of animals as their grandfathers had, because they only took the surplus males from any species and ensured that they never caused an imbalance in the natural world.
His ponderings led him to think of the great argument in philosophy, where it was claimed that if a mathematical function did not describe a natural occurrence then it had no validity in the subject of mathematics. This subject stems from how the planet has been shaped. It also explained why the subject has had such success in human endeavours. The natural world likes using good ideas repeatedly.
It is only rarely in the simple subject of arithmetic, where one act such as division can equal another act like addition, that the result only occurs once. This is called the golden ratio, and it leads to a form of geometry known as fractal geometry. It suggests that all valid forms of mathematical expressions are linked.
I have a very strong desire not to do anything ever again in my life, revealed Sally to her two male friends.
All you need is plenty of sun, said Jimmy.
And a very long break from this place, added George, to support Jimmy s view.
The most interesting aspect of education is that it does not stop when you leave this place but continues every day - frequently on a one-to-one basis, and when there is nobody questioning your mind all the time.
On hearing these words from Jimmy George knew that Jimmy was hinting that two is company, three is a crowd. He said his farewells.
While walking back to his very small office at the students union along the gravel paths between the university buildings his mind drifted to history, and the period when in every parish the local teacher s schoolhouse was built to a large size so that it could take in the parish orphans as well as housing the schoolmaster and his family. The closeness of their place of birth and a bond with the community gave assurance and comfort to distressed children who had lost their parents for whatever reason. The community looked after its own. It was not a factory discharging the unwanted, as many universities had become.
As he looked out of his office window at the warm summer s day George recalled his father speaking about Grandfather s first visit to the beach, shortly after the end of the Second World War. Not only was it his first sight of the sea but also his first experience of the words of politicians. During the time of the conflict many beaches were covered with barbed wire, which restricted access from both the sea and the seashore. It was the summer of Grandfather s eighth birthday when a politician announced that all beaches would be open to the public that summer along a one-metre-wide strip from the sand dunes to the sea. Like the words of politicians, this was utterly useless.
What are you thinking about, Jimmy? asked Sally.
Absolutely nothing, and it is a luxury I m enjoying, replied Jimmy.
At least you have a job. When my friend asked what the best degree was for getting a job the careers officer told her that engineers are in demand.
It s so hard to qualify as an engineer. Like medical doctors, I m only just starting. It will take twelve years from the day I commenced my first degree before I reach my final goal of becoming a British chartered engineer and, if I want to apply to become a European engineer, a further time to gain experience and the knowledge of at least two European languages. This is because in Europe the French word ing nieur is a protected title and can only be used by those people who are fully trained in engineering. It is the senior profession there. Like the word computer, the most misused word spoken in the English language, it s frequently used out of context by the unenlightened.
What s a chartered engineer?
That comes from the times when only the monarch of the day could grant privileges. This included all factors associated with trade, and groups applied to the monarch for the right to practise their skills. You can see why republics became popular. They have a different legal system - which states that the state is always right and that individuals are responsible for their own actions, and are therefore accountable. This requires all responsibilities to be defined in law. It is a much more efficient system, and stops the courts from being cluttered with trivial claims.
I never knew that, said Sally.
Not many people do. This is because the vested interests do not want the general public to know. There is an alternative system to the one being used. The engineer provides so many services and facilities in a modern technological society that their role is taken for granted by the general public - particularly as they do not shout about it, because they like to keep their customers happ