[Spellyans] " 'Breakthrough' rung"

[Craig Weatherhill]

Oh, don't worry, Eddie - I haven't plummetted into the depths of despair 
quite yet.  I was just wondering why people like Nicholas and I carry on 
with what we do when we are forever getting a hammering for doing so.  
But we do.  I think that it hurts these people more to see that they are 
not affecting our contributions.

However, I will admit to being rather down in the dumps, but for other 
reasons.  I suppose that this was inevitable but it's pretty horrible 
when you know that, within a few months, I will have to give an 
instruction that will kill the best friend I ever had, after 21 years.  
Of course, I'm talking about the old mare, Larnie, now the astonishing 
age of 37 and still pretty healthy apart from the fact that she is 
painfully thin and 4/5ths blind.  She can no longer turn food into fat 
and there is nothing I can do about it.  On Friday, the vet (who has 
known her for as long as I have) advised me to let her enjoy the summer 
and autumn, but not to let her face a winter she can never survive.  
Stabled or not she will suffer dreadfully.  I can never allow that to 
happen, but the only alternative is to have her put down.

What a hell of a choice to have to make. I find myself hoping that, 
between now and then, her old heart will stop and she'll peacefully keel 
over.  But, according to the vet, she doesn't have a heart: she has a 
trip hammer instead!  So, I strongly suspect that I will have no choice 
but to give that order.  And I will have to be there when it's done.  
What an absolute sod of a prospect.

Craig



Eddie Climo wrote:
> On 21 Jul 2008, at 14:03, Craig Weatherhill wrote:
>> . . . It does make one wonder why we continue to do what we do.
>
> Hentry Jenner famously posed a similar question in 1904 in his /Handbook:/
> /
>> Why should Cornishmen learn Cornish ? There is no money in it, it 
>> serves no practical purpose, and the literature is scanty and of no 
>> great originality or value.
>>
>> The question is a fair one, the answer is simple.
>>
>> Because they are Cornishmen.
>
> Despite its manifest flaws, the gist of his answer is still as valid 
> today as it was a century ago -- so long as we make allowances for him 
> ignoring (a) the female half of the human race, and (b) non-Cornish 
> people who might wish to learn Cornish.
>
> So, to paraphrase Jenner,
>> Why should anyone learn Cornish? . . . Because they love the language 
>> (or its literature, history, landscape, people . . .)
>
> So, Craig, does that answer your question? Nicholas is English, 
> Michael's an American, I'm a Cornish-Scots mongrel, Pat's of the 
> female persuasion . . . There's Bretons, Welsh, Germans . . .. Gar! 
> there might even be the odd pure-blooded Cornish male on this list, 
> for all I know. Yet, somehow, Jenner's answer probably resonates with 
> each of us.
>
> I know it does with me!
>
> As for the pissants of the Kesva, try taking a longer view: their 
> writings and their spurious orthography will die with them; like acne, 
> they are an affliction of the Revival in its adolescence.
>
> Only the best will be considered worth reading by generations yet unborn.
>
> yn lel,
>
> Eddie
> /
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