Legacy

It has been a week of mixed emotions, from the senseless horror of the Boston bombings on Monday to today's sombre and moving funeral ceremony for Baroness Thatcher. In different ways, moments of history in the making. Random acts of terrorism strike at all of us, making us fearful of the society we have created. On a more personal level, funerals likewise stir up strong emotions, challenging us to reflect on our own achievements and failings as well as those of the departed.

It is intriguing how politicians argue about the legacy of the Thatcher years, some claiming we are all Thatcherites now, in as much as the world has changed so radically since the 1980s that no future government would want to turn back the clock. It is as if we have collectively changed the way we think: to view society through the eyes of the previous generation may be as difficult as getting into the minds of  people of previous centuries. Acts of terrorism have the same effect: in an instant we begin to look at the world in a different light: things can no longer be taken for granted.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.