Some women love shoes, but with Barbara, it's notebooks. September finds her happily foraging at Easons, buying reams of foolscap for her ring binders and large notebooks with elastic snapped around their covers. And what a heavy pile of books! Philosophy for beginners is supposed to be very demanding - 7-9.30 p.m. twice a week, with a study retreat already booked for November and a mini-thesis to write.
Bill was quite narky about her taking yet another course, but her Relationships workshops have taught her that his opinions must be heard and interpreted in a positive way, so they talked it through. It's not as though she is doing this for fun - she needs to be using that part of her brain.
Evening classes have changed, and Barbara with them. While years ago she was happy with Spanish Conversation and Upholstery, now she is in search of a deeper understanding that Hegel and Kant might well provide, along with points towards her real goal - a degree in psychology, after which she is going to try counselling. There is such a need for it out there and already she can visualise the garage converted, with windows on the garden side, soothing white walls and two comfortable chairs (not her own work because she couldn't get the hang of upholstery in the end).
That's all ages away, though. It takes years to qualify and meanwhile there are all those books to read as Barbara embarks on her term paper, The Thesis of Love, which she has to explain in no less than 5,000 words by Christmas. It's mind-blowing stuff and Bill doesn't appreciate how much it takes out of her, and how much she has to put back in, getting to know the others in her study group. Hell of a lot of wining and dining involved, he'll say, as she circles yet another evening on the schedule that's pinned up in the kitchen. Sure you're not enrolled in Restaurant Criticism for Beginners by mistake?
He doesn't understand that getting to know people is part of the learning curve and, in fact, the part she's enjoying most. Who would have thought that Rita, the nun, would be so out there in her thinking, and then, the young students are fascinating. They seem to have just the right philosophy of living in the moment. That's something that her generation never learned to do. Too damn guilty, that was their problem. Never felt as if they deserved to be happy. Not like these young things who feel entitled to everything, and aren't they absolutely right.
Barbara's old friend, Susie, finds her quite changed, and not just because she has started wearing loose, floaty garments and dangly earrings. She was always a marvellous listener, but now she's brimming with explanations about the master/slave relationship, which they've all encountered at one stage or another, and then she's absolutely spot-on about mothers.
Really, Susie tells her, you ought to go into life coaching. Barbara has come to the same conclusion and there's an excellent course starting next spring. Not a word to Bill just yet, though.