The War Illustrated

Have some pictures from "The War Illustrated" to post this week, because you are not getting enough war stuff I know. It's a magazine of pictures that was published regularly during both world wars and Wikipedia describes it quite well.

This issue is 4 Septeber 1915. The front cover has a full page image captioned "'Bravo, Lloyd George !' British Soldiers cheering the splendid work of the new shells. The back is a full page ad, I mean editorial, showing "back numbers of 'The War Illustrated' converted into handsome volumes" and an opening paragraph that goes....

I have just had a striking example of what maybe be called the personal interest of "The War Illustrated". I received a letter, in which the writer, a lady, says: "You will be interested to know that the other day my children were looking over a bounded volume of 'The War Illustrated', lent to them by a friend, when suddenly one of them said 'There's father !' I looked also, and sure enough, in a photograph of a small column of troops marching somewhere in France, was husband was to be seen as plain as could be. I am now taking in 'The War Illustrated' every week. Perhaps we may see my husband again in its pages, and anyway, it will be a splendid storehouse of war pictures for him when he returns to fight his battles over again in the peace of his own home."


"German 'Flammenwerfer' (flame-projector) in action. The diabolical invention that
caused a temporary British set-back at Hooge by spraying liquid fire over our trenches."

On interests, or obsessions

One of the things that came up when Wendy Lawson came to the adult support group was about working with interests. One of them things that seem obvious or maybe it isn't.

It was a social gathering--sitting around the table with afternoon tea and people talking about themselves. Wendy refers to neural-typical people as generic, and those on the spectrum are name brands. She talked a little bit about very recent research with brain scans. And she talk about teaching people and encouraging people to work within their interest areas. Or obsessions if you want.

OK that seems obvious, because we all know people learn better when they're engaged with the material, but it's more than that.

Imagine you're in a world where everything is uncertain, every person you talk to might say something you don't understand or do something you don't know how to react to, or expect you to do something you don't understand or see need for, or tell you're wrong when you're not; and every situation could turn wrong; and every place has uncertainties hiding in the corner or the ground the might disappear from under your feet. Even at home, someone might knock on the door or ring up. Stressful. Tiring. Anxiety-causing.

Now imagine a place in that world were you can feel, maybe not safe, but on solid ground. You know how to negotiate this place, and you have the tools or weapons or armour to deal with (most) things that come into the world. That is the area of obsession. The life raft on the ocean of life :)



(Userpic: playing quoits on board a ship is harder than on land, because you have to account for the ship's movement, but you're moving with it. Even from a close distance, it's easy to misjudge.)