Several decades ago, whilst sitting in a Midtown Manhattan playground, dividing my attention between the welfare of two energetic toddlers and G. Wilson Knight’s The Wheel of Fire, I first came across and ruminated further on an amusing term.

In Act. , Timon of Athens soliloquizes that he is “no idle votarist :” Now an archaic term, at least according to. , a votarist is someone who pledges religious devotion to some belief, notion or cause, and as proof of such dedication lights votary candles in the name of that idea.

Thus, on this website, I apply the term “idle votary” to describe an act of casual musing or simply a statement of preference or opinion regarding subject matter that interests me. Here idle votary is the not-too-distant relative of the meditation or the essay.

And my meditative interests are far-ranging: Literature. Languages. Film. Music. Art. Architecture. Gardens. Urban Design. Life Sciences. Medicine. Physical Sciences. History. International Relations. Travel.