There are at least two types of sharing. The
purest type is surely when the act of sharing results in your having less of
what you had when you started. When I was at boarding school, our parents
stocked us up with sweets and chocolates at the beginning of term. This “tuck”,
as it was called, was immediately impounded by the school staff and distributed
in equal shares to all and sundry
once a week. This was undoubtedly the nearest the staff or anyone else got to
espousing communist principles.
This reminds me of a question my young grandson
once put to his mother, as he eyed the chocolate cake in front of him. “Mummy”,
he asked, “can I not share?” What was his drift? Was he seeking permission from
his mother to share the cake with his sister, or was he, as I suspect, asking
if he really had to share it at all? Either way, it was an interesting exercise
in ambiguity, worthy of inclusion in William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity. This was the first really heavy and
difficult book that I borrowed from the library (and quickly abandoned).
Another type of ambiguity is best exemplified by
Facebook in which members are enjoined to “share” upbeat – and carefully
filtered – moments from their life. Can their lives really be as cloudless and happy
as they appear to be? I certainly hope not. I myself am particularly keen on sharing
what I consider to be interesting articles I have read or pieces of music I have
heard. There is a self-regarding aspect to this, of course, as one is in a way sharing
the quality of the original.
Here are a few articles that have recently taken my
fancy:
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