A thought provoked by The Grapes of Wrath

Between the narrative of The Grapes of Wrath, wonderful and beautiful as it is, John Steinbeck includes many interesting and insightful comments, many of which still apply today, some seventy-four years after it was first published. Here is one I came across:

"If this tractor were ours it would be good - not mine, but ours. If our tractor turned the long furrows of our land, it would be good. Not my land, but ours. We could love that tractor then as we have loved this land when it was ours. But this tractor does two things - it turns the land and turns us off the land. There is little difference between this tractor and a tank. The people are driven, intimidated, hurt by both. We must think about this."

Now few people today (at least in Britain) could say they are being, or have been driven off their land by tractors, that do the same job at a cheaper cost. That I suppose happened many years ago, as it did in the USA. Now though we complain about the cost of food; food that is largely imported, making it more expensive and less fresh.
     This attitude fits closely with the western way of living, i.e 'someone else can do the planting, growing, harvesting, packing, etc., we'll just do the eating, preferably without having to pay too much. Meanwhile we do small jobs, that don't necessarily improve life, but often help us to do as little as possible.
     There was a time when each family grew their own food, made their own clothes, built their own homes, did things that were actually essential to life. Now we want other people to do this for us, preferably overseas where we don't have to see how hard it is. Oh and if you could make me the latest iPlod macro extra, with all the trimmings, that would be excellent.

Is the world going to change, no, or at least not over night. What I would like to suggest, however, is that we should take back our land from the tractor, which is itself a dying breed in England, where more and more fields are being built upon by our generous government. If farms cannot provide us with food, we should provide it for ourselves, as many already do.
     A small vegetable plot can produce a mass of food, enough to supply more than one family for a year. If every garden in Britain grew just one type of crop, we could stop importing so much food, which in turn would save a lot of money. Yes, we wouldn't have all food at all times of the year, but the food we would have would be fresh and probably much better for us.
     I hope that some day this is how we will live, because if we can improve our way of life in this way, perhaps we can improve it in other ways.

People don't change

The Grapes of Wrath is an American classic and was first published in 1939. Here is a paragraph though, that I did not expect to read:

"The doors of the empty house swung open, and drifted back and forth in the wind. Bands of little boys came out from the towns to break the windows and pick over the debris, looking for treasures. And here's a knife with the blade half gone. That's a good thing. And - smells like a rat died here. And look what Whitey wrote on the wall. He wrote that in the toilet at school, too, an' teacher made 'im wash it off."

Such a paragraph would not be out of place in a novel set in the twenty-first century, because people don't change. Houses are still left empty and boys will always be boys.

Down by the Weir

Outside of the town and on the far side of the hill the river ran in twists and curls. Trees shaded each bank and in places large rocks protruded from the water. In the summer we would go down to the river and lie in the sun or bathe in the cool water. It wasn't deep and the current wasn't strong and it would have been perfect except for the noise of traffic on the nearby road.
     One day while exploring further down stream, away from the town and the cars we discovered an old weir, still in perfect condition. The water flowed over the smooth rocks and tumbled noisily down the far side. Below the weir the river became very shallow for a while and we paddled about and watched for fish. Then someone had the idea of sitting in the cascade of white water, which we did, letting the flow cool our backs, hot from the sun.
     We stayed all day swimming and wading, enjoying the peace. The next day we came back, and almost every day that summer when the sun shone. It was our secret place. Our garden, our play park and we shared it only with the birds.

Ashes - Day 1 from Trent Bridge

An interesting day of test match cricket. It was always going to be nervy and exciting but I didn’t really expect 14 wickets, or even half that number.

Anyway, got the ground well in time for the toss, England won, although it might have been better to lose. Cloudy conditions made it a good time to bowl.

Then there were the national anthems, the Coldstream Guard, fireworks and perfectly timed, the Red Arrows.

Finally got the first ball, a wide, good start and after that everything settled down for a while.

Plenty of Aussies in the crowd kept the noise and the tension up but with England 98-2 at lunch everything seemed as per normal.

After lunch though it got a bit mad. England played some bad shots and seemed to get intimidated by Siddle. So they threw away their decent start and early in the evening session collapsed completely. 215 all out was bad, very bad, and the England fans were very quiet. Sadly this made the Aussie fans sing even louder.

However half an hour later, however, everything changed. Finn took two in two and Anderson bowled Clarke and there was a rousing rendition of ‘You’re not singing anymore’ to the much subdued bunch from Down Under. It was still cloudy and chilly but then a cameraman turned up next to me and the guys I was with. We tried to act normal… but failed...

 

 

Anderson got another wicket, possibly a bit luckily and that was about the end of it. Hoping for something a bit more steady tomorrow, not sure I can take another day like that! Still, COME ON ENGLAND!

Travelling British Columbia

Outside the teepee our fire is crackling. The mountainside campsite grants us a spectacular view of a snowcapped range with the sun setting in the distance. From the border with Alberta I can reflect on four days in eastern Canada.
     Vancouver is a city. Like most cities it has skyscrapers, restaraunts and buses that don't run to time (although they were better than many English services). We also visited the pleasant area of Gastown and had dinner there.
    In north Vancouver is a hidden valley and across it the Capilano suspension bridge. Above the river and between the trees we swayed and I began to feel like I'd found some of what I came to British Columbia to see.
    Monday morning we collected our hire car and departed Vancouver on the Sea-to-sky highway. It was precipitating rather badly but we ignored that and set off in search of mountains. It wasn't long until we found some and lost ourselves amongst their soaring peaks.
     In Whistler we stopped in the Olympic village before heading on around hairpin bends, deeper into the Canadian wilderness. We drove over 500 km and finished at a small youth hostel with old railway carriages for dorm rooms.
     Today we continued further into the Rockies, in dryer weather thankfully, until we arrived at Goldenwood Lodge and our teepee.

Our aim to reach Calgary by Thursday night should still be possible, despite the floods. For the meantime though it is farewell BC, hello Alberta.

The foolishness of exams

In a week in which Mr Gove has announced there will now be even more emphasis on exams and less coursework, I thought I would congratulate those who have made it through exam season with a reminder of the foolishness of exam papers.

Remember, exams don't actually prove how smart you are, only what you can regurgitate under timed conditions, and from 2017 sixteen year-olds will be required to produce two years worth of studies in two months of intense pressure. Good luck everyone!

Britain's Got (no) Talent ... apparently

So this year, possibly for the first time ever, I actually loosely followed what was happening on Britain's got talent, i.e. I watched the most popular youtube clips and then spending a spare evening watching the final on catch-up.
     I had been quite impressed with what I'd seen and the line up for the final looked interesting, entertaining and occasionally impressive. I couldn't call who was going to win, although from the running order it was clear who the producers (and mainly Simon Cowell) wanted to win.
     After last year, when a dog won, I thought that this year Britain might actually have an act to be proud of and that the Royal family might appreciate at the Royal Variety Show.
     In the end it went to Shadow Dance group Attraction, who, don't get me wrong, are very impressive, original and moving in what they do. They looked good from their audition right through, and, as far as the competition went, were worthy winners. However, they are from Hungary. Yes the winners of BRITAIN'S got talent, aren't even from this island! At least the dog could claim that!

In the light of this I think it's time for a name change.
    
     How about: Where is Britain's talent?
                               Or,
                         Britain doesn't care about British talent, so here are some other options!


Please add your suggestions below!