symposia

There is a mug in my parents cupboard with 'Avoid Symosia, for they involve much chatter and idle talk' on it. I always liked this mug, and not just for the use of plurals ending in 'ia', and tend to try to avoid places where the chat is time filler rather than the purpose.

So, perhaps a surprise to find myself in the last week, going to one symposium after another and trying to make some sense of it all. Interesting as the subject matter might be, it is often hard to maintain the attention any particular presentation deserves as it does into ever more detail about the methodology used to bring about conclusion that most people seem to generally agree with already. So on Reproductive Commodity Security, National Health Programming and HIV Prevention and Care, I am now more knowledgable than I was at the start of the week, but not so clear on what all the experts were doing there other than informing ignoramouses like myself. Ostensibly I was there to network, and did so with all the capriciousness I could muster, the levels varying significantly.

The next week will be the same, as will the week after that. Its not a lifestyle I particularly desire, but it is better than being in the office, and it's hard to look ahead to a working life of this and all the associate trappings.

But in fires like these are the destinies of big world works forged -