David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :
'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)
(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.
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Today, as the Global Financial Crisis continues and as many unthinkables are being openly considered, the G20 leaders (Group of 20 advanced and emerging nations) are meeting in Washington to ask, "What do we do now?".
This from Reuters_India :
G20 draft outlines concrete action planSat Nov 15, 2008 7:01am IST "The summit will have concrete results. You can take this as guaranteed," a senior official of a European G20 country said.
The official said the draft statement contains both a section dealing with the causes of the global credit crisis and an "action plan."
"The action plan will contain several headlines, under which concrete proposals are summarized," the official added. "There is a division between actions which should be taken immediately until March 31st and medium-term actions."
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