The only positive thing I can see in all this is that now women as a gender have got to the point where a certain class of them - the top of the world girls - can be utterly boring and stupid and get talked about in national media for being so. Wow. Whooee! Yay! I guess ....

Can we go back to talking about something more interesting?

Here's a lesson in grace: just say 'thanks' and if you do feel objectified by the comment, turn it around and make them the object for a few seconds by commenting on them. 'And I just love your hairstyle' for example.

Just out of curiosity: you say you're 55 and have a ten pound bundle of joy? Now, you mean? Have you just had a baby at 55? If that's the case and you were at my gym I'd be commenting too. I'd be saying 'congratulations' and looking in wide eyed amazement at your just had a baby 55 arse ...

Bodies are visible. They are the vessels we carry our brains and our souls in. They are a rich source of information about a person. They are sometimes quite, quite beautiful. Sometimes just looking at someone - a woman or a man - makes me marvel at the beauty of creation. It's natural, it's normal, it's fine to look at people. Twas ever thus ...

But I agree that it's not great to comment on them. Except when someone is looking so fabulous or glowing you think it will give them a lift to reflect that back to them.

As I read your letter I was awestruck by your happiness, and, even more important, your awareness of your happiness. You are one of the most successful people I have ever read about. The level of happiness and appreciation you express about your life is precious and rare.

I wouldn't trade happiness like this for anything. Don't go.

Oh no - can I ever purely enjoy looking at a dolphin again? What's that? I feel a stirring, an inner stirring ...

I don't think this is always the right way to go, but it sounds just the right thing now. You can see the pros and cons of everything, and it sounds like the choices really are yours to make. So give up on the idea of a 'right' choice and a 'wrong' choice. Embrace the entitlement to go down the path of what you want. I did this with writing. I could see many disadvantages and terrors down the road - and I was quite right about that. I had no idea if I had any talent - and I still don't. But I wanted to write. I wanted writing. In some inarguable fundamental way. And so I am writing. And even without any 'answers' I have a strong feeling of being on the right path because, no matter what happens, this is what I want.

Right at the start of her thought provoking article the author says she's grateful she has food and is healthy ... and then near the end of the article says that she'll donate to UNICEF when her financial situation has eased somewhat, in what sounded like years down the track, if ever.

These facts are not unrelated, however. The fact that you are healthy and do and will always have enough to eat cannot be overlooked. They are the most important things in the whole article. Having those blessings I say it's time to show gratitude by sharing them with others - by donating to UNICEF now.

If we all waited until we felt rich and secure before we gave beyond our own families the world would be in even deeper trouble than it is now. And right now it's in deep deep trouble. Food shortages world wide for one thing.

So - give now, keep giving, and lets all hope and contribute materially to a more compassionate, generous world. We all need it.

... or what big favour did you do them? .... is what I think when I see a blurb. Am developing quite a little diagram of people's social/sexual liaisons as they are charted in blurbs.