Isn’t it interesting to observe that you immediately get on with certain people, even though you may well be quite different, whereas with other people it is nothing but trouble and strife even though they actually have a similar background?

We’re all equal but not the same and being able to distinguish between the two is quite essential. It’s not so easy and can lead to a lot of complications.

It sometimes boils down to a single word. Recently someone objected to the use of the word “cleverly” to such an extent that I began to feel sorry for this word.

Almost all words in themselves are quite neutral, the situation in which they are used may well be tainted or even worse, but this really doesn’t, and shouldn’t, affect this word when used in a completely different context.

This reminds me, being a trained scientist myself, about people condemning certain scientific discoveries or the scientist who brought this to light. Our human nature is to investigate and discover how we use this knowledge is quite a different matter, and often not at all controlled by the people who did the research in the first place.

Some people believe in god others vehemently don’t. That’s life but try to accept each other as different but equal inhabitants of this earth.

Fiction, in the sense of a novel, of course plays with these isues, and more importantly tries to get to grips with it. If you want to understand why we are different and yet equal, read a lot of novels because, and here I’m quoting one of my authors, ‘the art of literature is to tell the truth by lying about it’.

Take a step back, accept, no enjoy, the variety of life, and maybe at one point, I can even convince a certain person that the word “cleverly” has the right to exist.