Peacocks. Freedom. Control. And some cartoons.

Status is a very odd thing. Well, the importance people give to it is a very odd thing. In 2022 Dunfermline in Fife was given city status. Did the people of Dunfermline suddenly feel more important, more prestigious? And now the peacocks (yes, the peacocks!) of Dunfermline have officially been given the Freedom of the City. Were steps taken before this to keep them in their place? i wonder. “Peacocks have had the freedom to roam around the park for over a century, so when Dunfermline got city status, we pushed even more to give it officially to the birds,” says the lead warden for the peacocks, Suzi Ross. “These birds are loved by so many people from Dunfermline and all over the world.”

Famous free peacocks! It sounds like the of minor absurdity that Billy Connolly might have ranted about once upon a time. 

There’s a house not far from ours which often has peacocks in the garden. They :can be very noisy when they so choose, woth a raucous screech. So far nobody has proposed giving them Freedom of the Village!

Conspiracy theories abound. Are all our lives being manipulated? Here’s another of Michael Rosen’s King and his Tutor ever-relevant comments:

'Tell me tutor, do you ever have a sense that there's a bigger power than us?' said the King to his tutor.

'God,  you mean?' said the tutor.

'No, not God,' said the King.

'Who then?' said the tutor.

'You know, a great power,' said the King.

'Well of course we have allies,' said the tutor.

'I know that,' said the King, 'but I was thinking that maybe one or two of these allies might be a kind of bigger power than us.'

'I don't think it's wise to go down this route, sir,' said the tutor.

'It's just that every now and then,' said the King, 'I get the impression that maybe we're not in charge of our own destiny.'

'Well, put it this way,' said the tutor, 'if that were true, the best thing to do would be to keep quiet about it.'

'Why's that?' said the King.

'Because we want the world to know that we're standing on our own two feet,' said the tutor, 'protecting our people, doing what we're destined to do, in this great land of ours.'

'Yes, I get that,' said the King, 'but what if all that is just so that this greater power than us, gets its own way?'

'It's possible,' said the King, 'and if it were true, it doesn't really matter because we're the beneficiaries, aren't we?'

'Yes,' said the King, 'but then it's us that gets whacked, if trouble breaks out.'

'That doesn't matter in the longterm,' said the tutor, 'because we can always take advantage of that and get what we want, and even more of what we want.'

'Because it suits this greater power?' said the King.

'Exactly,' said the tutor.

'So we're all doing well out of it,' said the King.

'Yes indeed,' said the tutor, 'though not exactly all. But all of us on this side of the argument, yes.'

'Yes,' said the King.

And here’s a bit of relevant graffiti art:

While I’m posting pictures, here are a couple of cartoons I’ve been forgetting to post.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone! "