I’ve just added a short piece called Beauty is Truth in the short stories section. It’s a piece I’d started some time ago and intended at some point to continue but, for the present, I’m leaving it as a stand alone vignette. It is exploring the idea that because society now makes such a show of being brash, loud and disrespectful the most rebellious thing you can do is be the opposite. If society is rude and discourteous then open doors, pull out chairs, and say thank you more. If everyone in society swears then learn better words, learn to express yourself more eloquently. If society dictates that Katie Price is to be admired then go read about Rosa Parks or Emmeline Pankhurst. If society dictates that Lady GaGa is some kind of musical genius then go listen to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #5 and realise what genius means. Courtesy is the real rebellion, culture is the real revolution.

The story is entitled after the last lines of Keats’ poem Ode to a Grecian Urn. They sum up nicely an attitude that existed before we all became so infuriatingly post-modern.

You can read Beauty is Truth here and there are also some notes on the story.