Routine reflections on life, again!

My normal routine has been completely disrupted for weeks. Things keep preventing me from going out and running in the morning, starting my day with a good wake-up shake-up. If it's not the weather, it's running around doing things to help our daughter reduce her stress. And then there are the days when I have some social commitment which means I have to go our early and catch a bus. Of course, I could get up earlier and run earlier but I am supposed to be a retired lady, doing things at my own pace. 

I do, however, usually get a round to looking at the papers online. Today I have read about the Pope's concern that young people are not getting married. He feels they are put off by the fear of failure. This is caused by the increasing divorce rates apparently, especially in the case of children of divorced parents. I suppose he would say that, wouldn't he? Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, writing in the Guardian, doesn't agree with him. As the child of divorced parents, she does not feel at all put off marriage. Quite the contrary: the fact that her parents divorced makes her really want to form a nice, cosy family unit - commitment all round. She maintains that unstable jobs, zero-hours contracts and the housing crisis affect rates of marrying much more. What struck me was her saying that young couples feel that cannot get married until they can afford a house. Which I suppose is sensible, although people used to marry and then save up; maybe if you wait for everything to be perfect you might never get round to marrying at all. Maybe another factor is the attitude of society in general: surely very few people nowadays regard an unmarried couple living together as "living in sin". 

Here's another attitude that might be changing and certainly needs to change: attitudes to women who have been sexually attacked. I have read of two cases, one here and on in New York, of young women who have been raped and are turning down the option to remain anonymous. This was, and often still is, regarded as a protection for the victim but these two young women feel that publicising their suffering is a way of making people face up to the ongoing problem of young women not being able to walk around safely, especially in the late evening. The girl from Oxford has written an open letter to her attacker, letting him know that his attack on her is an attack on the whole community. Meanwhile the student from the university of Columbia University in New York has been carrying her mattress around the university, claiming that this represents an intimate part of her life that has been invaded. In the litigious society of the USA, the chap accused of attacking her is threatening to sue the university for allowing her portray him as a rapist!! Wonderful!! 

That's the feminist issues bit of this post out of the way. 

Finally, Microsoft has produced a facial analysis tool (is it a tool or an app?) called "How Old Do I Look?" It analyses photos of faces and comments on the gender and age of the subject. I can think of no sensible use or need for such a tool? I suppose that if it constantly tells you that you look ten years younger than your actual age than you might find it flattering. But how depressing must it be if it tells you that you look ten years older? A young friend of mine on Facebook has had her photos variously analysed as 24, 29 and 37. Her six-year-old son has been declared to look 51! 

Well, they do say that some small boys are like little old men!