WHAT a dismal picture the writer of the letter entitled 'Cruel World' (Star, November 18) conjures up. It reads like something out of the Dickens era.

I am one of a family of nine children (now in our 60s and 70s). So-called 'surviving' now, compared to what our parents went through, is laughable. We thrived on familiarity. It taught us love, caring and compassion, not contempt.

To offer kindness and comfort to anyone, especially relatives, in hours of darkness brings its own rewards, namely a guard against neurosis and cynicism.

I also lack further education, but I do know that a free thinker is not a martyr to life. Martyrdom is the domain of the religionists. Heaven forbid, that we should send our children out in to the world with a 'dog-eat-dog' attitude. That is not being a realist, it is being an antagonist.

Moral codes of ethics run through all philosophies and all religions, by far the most important being 'as you sow, so shall you reap' (ancient version); 'the law of cause and effect' (modern version).

Considering Mrs L M Feeney's very bumpy ride through life it would be more appropriate to use my own favourite version 'what goes round, comes round.'

CONTENTED pensioner (name and address supplied).

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.