The Hunter

I try to find inspiration for writing in as many places as possible. This is an opening I have created based on three randomly selected words from a word association game (Codenames). Can you guess which words they were?


One day, while walking along the shore of Loch Ness, I met a man from Germany. At first, I must admit I had no idea he was from anywhere other than just around the corner. His English was impeccable, and his Scottish accent as flawless as the next Glaswegian. As I passed him I noticed that he was digging in the soft earth beside the Loch, and being in no particular hurry I paused to watch him. After a moment he looked up at me.
     "Good morning," I said.
     He nodded solemnly in reply.
     "Are you digging for anything in particular?" I asked.
     He looked at the ground, then back at me and frowned, trying to make up his mind it seemed. Then he said, "A crown."
     This was not the answer I expected, although it could have been anything I suppose. Anyway, I must have looked at least a little surprised, because he added, "a real one, but an old one."
     He went on to tell me how he had been researching about some ancient ruler in Europe (hence my discovery of his nationality) who had to flee for his life and, this man believed, had come to live on the shores of Loch Ness. Some time later the King was discovered and killed, but his crown was never found. The man continued to tell me at length about his studies and how he had now lived in Scotland for many years and had been hunting for the location of the missing crown, as yet without success.
     Eventually we parted, he to his digging and me to my walk. I pondered over everything he had shared with me and I became increasingly impressed by his perseverance over something that could come to nothing. He might never find the crown, and who was really going to care even if he did. The more I thought about it the more amazing it seemed. Gradually, however, I came to wonder if anything he had told me was true at all. Had in fact been led along in an elaborate joke, or was this man covering up something else entirely?


Did you guess the words?
They were: Loch Ness, Crown and Germany

No Rescue Prevents the Cause

This is a story I heard recently.

It's a lovely sunny day so you and a group of friends decide to go for a picnic down by the river. You get out the blankets and the food, everyone's having fun, when suddenly one of the group spots someone coming down the river. They seem to be struggling and they're being swept along by the strong current. You know that not much further on the river goes over a waterfall; it would be impossible to survive. It is imperative that you act. Holding on to each other you stretch out into the river and catch the person as they come by. You drag them up onto the bank and rap a blanket around them. Everyone's congratulating each other and very thankful that you managed to save the person.
     Just as you're sitting back down though, you spot five people coming down the river, splashing and fighting to stay afloat. There's no time to think. You jump into the water and try to catch as many as possible. Everyone is involved in pulling the people out of the water, but when everyone is back on the bank you only count four rescued people and you realise with heartbreak that two people slipped by.
     Then someone shouts that there are ten people coming. You're all feeling out of breath, but everyone jumps in again. Five more people are rescued, but five others aren't. By now you're tired, the sun has gone in and the wind is picking up. You're thinking of heading home, when twenty people appear in the river. Everyone musters themselves and you go again, this time rescuing ten people, but losing another ten. You don't know whether to rejoice for the rescued ones or mourn those who have gone.
     It occurs to you that this doesn't seem to be stopping and as valiant as your rescue efforts are, at some point someone has to go upstream and find out who is throwing these people into the river in the first place.


This story was used as an analogy of human trafficking. All the time there are people being rescued from horrific situations, but the number of people in slavery around the world continues to grow.

Fear Misplaced

I've lost count of the number of times I've asked a child, "What are you afraid of?", when they tell me that they're feeling nervous, or scared of the zip wire/climbing wall/abseil tower etc. The answer though is always the same: "Heights".
     My response has become equally repetitive. "No, you're afraid of something else." I then get them to figure out what it is that makes them scared, to which the answer is: falling.

I have come to the opinion, and I believe it is the truth, that no one in the world is afraid of heights. We are all, however (and this is proven fact) afraid of falling. It is one of just two fears that we are born with. It's a good thing to be afraid of, because we don't want to fall, falling is bad and our body reacts against that. Sadly, we have come to refer to that fear as being afraid of heights, which is nonsense. Just because you're in a high place does not mean you will fall. Helping kids to understand this is a big part of getting them to give the challenging, high-up, activities, a go.

Thinking about this led me to consider what other fears we have that are misplaced.

Fear of the dark is in fact a fear of what may come out of the dark.
Fear of flying, relates back to the fear of falling/crashing.
Fear of dentists or doctors or needles, is presumably a fear of pain (to the body or the wallet, or both).
Fear of death. I guess this is really a fear of the unknown, of what, or what doesn't lie beyond.

If we could come to see our fears for what they really are, maybe we would be better at overcoming them, or changing our attitude towards them.

(By the way, the other fear we are born with is Loud Noises. Not a fear we easily recognise. But you blink every time someone is hammering a nail!)

Shakespeare

“On it like a sonnet” as Shakespeare used to say. Or maybe not, who knows? Ah, that brilliant writer of the great and beautiful English language, now 400 years departed, and in commemoration I have found a sonnet with which I can associate, working at an outdoor centre.

Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack on his celestial face,
And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace:
Even so my sun one early morn did shine,
With all triumphant splendour on my brow;
But out! Alack! He was but one hour mine,
The region cloud hath mask’d him from me now.
     Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth;
     Suns of the world may stain when heaven’s sun staineth.

The Adventure of English

English is a language that has spread further than any other and is now spoken as a first language by vast numbers of people all over the globe, and by even more people as a second or third language. It has always been a greatly adaptable language pulling in words from other tongues and simply adding them to the ever growing list of words that fill the English dictionary. What started as a humble language spoken by small tribes has been shaken by invasions, and by invasion has shaken the world.

So often described as a Germanic language yet it is filled with Latinate words, mainly thanks to the French who almost wiped out English, and phrases that stretch back through time so that we have forgotten their original meaning. It has been moulded and stretched by great writers such as Chaucer and Shakespeare and Dickens, while others, like Samuel Johnson, have tried to contain it in dictionaries and have people speak it correctly. Yet today accents and dialects are stronger than ever, within England and without. Words can be altered, grammar can be changed (or ignored – again both overseas and in Essex, I mean, England) and yet still we can understand each other (just).

This is the adventure of English, as described by Melvyn Bragg in his novel by that name. A fascinating story of how a language has changed and how it has changed the world. It is a gripping, twisting narrative with times of trouble, great victories and a cast of colourful characters who have all impacted the way we speak today and indeed the way I write this post now. So if you’re looking for something to read, something that will surprise you, amaze you, make you laugh and teach you more than you can possibly imagine about a language you probably thought you knew well, look up The Adventure of English!

 

 

 

 

When a family member gets married

I have now had the joy of attending the wedding of an immediate family member (my sister) and while I have been to many weddings over the years, I found this one at little different. The closest comparison I can make is to Christmas. There was the big build up, the preparations and excitement, which came to a head in the final week as my family gathered together. Then there was the day itself, full of fun, a trip to Church, handing over of cards and presents (although the happy couple won't open theirs for a while) a large meal and seeing old friends and family. Following the wedding, we had a quiet(er) day, going for a walk in the afternoon before ending up in front of the TV (to see an Englishman win the Masters) and the weekend crossword in the Times.

For the wedding I had the privilege of being an Usher, which seems to me to involve about 50% sitting around, 40% being told to do a wide variety of tasks by other members of the wedding party and guests and 10% actually doing things - such taking certain import items like these to the church:

Classical Music Hall of Fame

The Classic FM Hall of Fame is always a pleasurable listening experience over the Easter weekend, as they count down the top 300 pieces of classical music, as voted for by the public each year. However, I am starting to feel that the public are losing imagination as this year the top 6 were exactly the same as they were last year, and even in the same order, and the top 2 haven't changed (besides swapping every so often) for at least 8 years. This surprises me because over the 21 years of the chart there have been many changes and my personal choices have varied enormously as I'm made aware of new (usually old) pieces and as my tastes change. I still approve of and appreciate much of highest placed pieces but my top few would be a little different.

Here are the Top 15 from this year's Hall of Fame:

1. The Lark Ascending - Vaughan Williams
2. Piano Concerto no.2 - Rachmaninov
3. Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis - Vaughan Williams
4. Enigma Variations - Elgar
5. Piano Concerto no.5 - Beethoven
6. Miserere - Allegri
7. Clarinet Concerto - Mozart
8. Symphony no.6 - Beethoven
9. Symphony no.9 - Beethoven
10. Cello Concerto in E minor - Elgar
11. Violin Concerto no.1 - Bruch
12. Adagio for Strings - Barber
13. 1812 Overture - Tchaikovsky
14. The Planets Suite - Holst
15. The Armed Man - Jenkins


By comparison here are my Top 15 classical pieces (as they currently stand)

1. Enigma Variations - Elgar
2. Violin Concerto no.1 - Bruch
3. Piano Concerto in A minor - Grieg
4. Cello Concerto in E minor - Elgar
5. Clarinet Concerto - Mozart
6. Piano Concerto no.2 - Rachmaninov
7. Spiegel im Spiegel - Arvo Part
8. 1812 Overture - Tchaikovsky
9. The Armed Man - Jenkins
10. The Planets Suite - Holst
11. Jazz Suite no.2 - Shostakovich
12. Miserere - Allegri
13. The Lord of the Rings (soundtrack) - Shore
14. Scheherazade - Rimsky-Korsakov
15. Piano Sonata no.14 (Moonlight Sonata) Beethoven

The really tricky thing is that it is so difficult to compare any two pieces of music and that is why I have voted for 13 different pieces in the past 7 years and why I expect my favourites to change regularly. My hope is that there will be at least some change on Classic FM in the future too!