Friends: a rant.

 You can chose your friends, the saying goes, but you can't chose your family.

The trouble is that a lot of the time we can't choose our friends, either - and sometimes it can take really quite an effort to dodge them.

This has got even harder, lately, because now companies have got matey. They want us to join their on-line communities. They want to give us their views on our ideal weight, and then spring-clean our morals.

Listen to me: if you're a grocer then all I want from you is food and household goods. My mental health and spirituality (if any) are, quite frankly, none of your business. Just hand over the flipping onions!

The National Trust is a UK-based charity which looks after some good bits of countryside and many historic sites. That's what I want it to do. I don't want to be friends with it, and I don't believe that The National Trust has the slightest interest in being friends with me. 

As evidence, I present a letter I got in the post earlier in the year. It says:

 Welcome to your new National Trust car sticker.

It makes me feel less than respected, let alone valued and loved.

Word To Use Today: trust. This word comes from the Old Norse traust. The Old High German word trost means solace.