What is your favourite book? Anthea's too, I suppose.
Is there a formal procedure to the spying (or whatever your preferred term for it is) there is you do on your brother, or is this just unofficial (illegal? Not that I imagine you'd be terribly concerned about breaking the law, but, you know)?
How do you manage...everything? I don't mean the world (although I'm sure that's interesting!) I just mean from a mental-health standpoint this seems like a frankly terrible job. Like one of the worst I can imagine.
Is there anyone else like you anywhere? Like one person who's the government of, like, Namibia or something behind the scenes?
Relatedly, do you work for the UK because it's easier, or out of some sense of patriotic duty, or what? I just...wouldn't have put you down as the super-patriotic type. I don't know.
This one isn't a question but I hope you have a very nice day month year!
I trust you are aware that my untimely respond is entirely the fault of current worldly affairs.
1. Favourite? I’m afraid that’s rather a childish way of categorising literature. Books are tools, not pets, anonymous.
However, if you insist on an answer, I have always found a certain reliability in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. One can consult it for almost any human failing and discover that it was thoroughly documented several centuries ago.
As for Anthea, I suspect she would claim something fashionable and modern in order to appear interesting. Whether she’s actually read it is, of course, another matter entirely.
2. Spying is such an unnecessarily melodramatic word, and for melodramatics you should turn to my brother @artofdeductionbysholmes.
If you must know, the British government maintains a number of perfectly legal mechanisms for remaining… informed about individuals who possess both exceptional abilities and a catastrophic disregard for personal safety. My brother happens to qualify on both counts.
The process, as you call it, is therefore neither illegal nor especially mysterious. It is simply prudent governance.
Besides, keeping an eye on Sherlock Holmes is less a matter of surveillance and more a matter of damage control. Left entirely unsupervised, he has an unfortunate tendency to wander directly into explosions, metaphorical or otherwise…. Though, now that he has a family with @johnhwatsonblog, I have the foolish hope it will make him less reckless.
So, think of it less as espionage and more as… familial risk management.
3. An understandable question, though it betrays a rather modern assumption that one must enjoy one’s responsibilities in order to carry them.
I don’t manage it because it is pleasant. I manage it because someone with intelligence must.
The machinery of government is not held together by enthusiasm or emotional wellness initiatives, but by a quiet collection of individuals who are simply unwilling to let it fall apart on their watch. One develops certain habits—routine, discretion, distance. They are quite sufficient.
Besides, the work itself is not the burden you imagine. The burden is people. They are unpredictable, irrational, and perpetually convinced they understand matters that would give them nightmares if they truly did.
Fortunately, I rarely require their understanding. Only their cooperation.
And when that fails…..one improvises.
4. Clearly and unfortunately, no.
5. Patriotism is a rather theatrical word, don’t you think? It tends to conjure images of flags, speeches, and enthusiastic singing. None of which, I assure you, feature prominently in my daily routine.
I serve the United Kingdom for a far simpler reason: it is mine.
One does not choose one’s country the way one chooses a restaurant. One is born into a system, legal, cultural, institutional, and if one happens to understand that system rather well, it becomes difficult to justify abandoning it to people who understand it rather less.
So no, I would not describe it as such.
6. That is considerate of you. Considering the challenges, I know it won’t be a boring year. Pleasant, however… no.