Broken links

 

Broken links

 Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons 

Looking back at old posts I discovered that some of the links to information no longer work. This made me consider the broken links that occur in life. Sometimes, they break because someone has died. The deceased live on in memory – in many people’s memories – and perhaps that is the only immortality most of us will achieve.

At other times, links break because circumstances change – a house move, a new job, a diminishing interest in a hobby or group. Other broken links occur in jewellery and fences.

Below is the November 2009 post that brought about these random thoughts.

 

The Jains

Sleepy Gus - 8 weeks old

 As I have tripped over Gus or trodden on his paws or tail I have begun to slow my pace, adopting a sort of shuffling gait around the house. This is essential when small, fast moving animals are in the vicinity. I was shambling from cupboard to work top yesterday when I flippantly remarked that I should join the Poor Jains.

I have always referred to them as Poor Jains – maybe I was mixing them up with the Franciscan order of Poor Clares.

The Jains have always impressed me with their respect for all forms of life. I understood that they walked slowly and carefully in order not to harm any living creature, however small or insignificant. I thought they would not scratch an itch for fear of destroying life. Beyond that I knew very little so I researched . . .

Traditionally Jains are vegetarian and the strictest adherents will not eat root vegetables because pulling the root from the earth kills the plant and they believe that all living things have a soul.

Jains believe in reincarnation, aspiring to a release from the cycle of birth and death into a perpetual state of bliss for the soul. This is achieved by ridding the soul of all karma – in effect denying or resisting influences which affect purity of thought, word and deed.

Jainism is a living, thriving religion with followers in many countries though the greater majority are to be seen in India. Information about Jains in the UK can be found here.

Bloggarts

How did they get there?

One of my blog posts has sprouted 29 links. I’ve no idea how they arrived but there they are, bold as brass! A couple of them are from a blogger who has not posted anything since February 2010.

Do these links come like thieves in the night? They certainly weren’t there yesterday. The thought of A. N. Other sneaking into my laptop and creating havoc has me quaking in my boots – well, my shoes, actually. Arethere impish blogging fairies like the boggarts – I suppose they’d be bloggarts – intent on mischief?

The bloggarts take liberties with my laptop in other ways, too. There was the case of the missing cursor, for instance, and the links I appeared to have put on other writers’ blogs, but hadn’t. There’s the case of the shifting font; I will have chosen one that I like but even as I type the whole page changes to a completely different typestyle and colour that I would never choose in a million years. Suddenly, this turns into this. Sometimes it returns almost immediately but often I have to adjust it with Home, Select All. Tiresome!

Maybe I should make offerings to the great gods of cyberspace. What would be a suitable donation, I wonder?

On the other hand, perhaps it’s just Blogger playing silly fools again. It has been misbehaving this week, first not allowing me to comment on other people’s posts and then denying me access to my blog. It didn’t sulk for long but it was annoying.