Run for the hills: sunrise 04:14, sunset 22:25

Wednesday 2 July 2008

sunrise 04:14, sunset 22:25

Hold on tight! My readership is falling off. This is because I am neglecting the blog.

Chestnuts
There's lots of reasons for this - but mainly it's because I'm trying to focus on a big piece of work I'm doing for Changeworks. I delude myself that if I don't blog I'll get more work done. So far it's not quite working that way but I still have high hopes. Another reason for the lack of blogging is a crisis of confidence over what the blog is - is it a public diary, a social commentary, inane and perhaps amusing ramblings - or what?

Anyway, Jussi and Ailsa are away in Hamburg leaving me here 'to get more work done' - ah that old chestnut again.

Sporting Heroes
The weather is glorious, I'm watching Wimbledon for the first time in decades - and thoroughly enjoying it - and wondering if I'll speak to anyone today. Yesterday human contact came in the form of a delivery driver.

I'm amused by the fuss over Andy Murray's remarks about not supporting England. For any English readers please be assured that a Scot who supports any English sporting endeavour is a very rare thing. It's in their blood. It's not so much that they like to see England lose (well sometimes maybe) it's just more that they prefer to see the other team win.

I had a similar problem during the football over that last couple of weeks. Obviously I was supposed to want Germany to win. But as hard as I tried I always found a reason to want their opponents to win. Many English people will understand that - they just need to take those feelings and transpose them to Scotland and they might understand Andy Murray's comments.

2 comments:

Petra said...: Sorry, but I'm not getting it - why were you supposed to want Germany to win?

and btw, am also going through a blog-identity-crisis over here, so bad I can't even be bothered to blog about it. Your blog, however, is actually interesting/socially relevant/fun and has people (like me, just as an example) checking in pretty much every day to see if there are any new posts, and leave mightily disappointed if there aren't. Not sure if that's enough prodding to help you locate that misplaced motivation, but hey, people love your blog, that's got to count for something... Maybe part of it is just the novelty wearing off and you getting used to your new life and less thrilled about every little detail of it? (just wait till the goats arrive, that'll give you sth. new to write about...hehe). Anyway, hope you keep blogging!; 2 July 2008 at 21:30
The Speaking Goat said...: Gosh! Thanks Pedi.

Jussi is German - which is why she's off to Hamburg with Ailsa - and Jussi tends to get a bit upset when I cheer at a, let's be hypothetical here and imagine a, for example, Spanish goal.

Tee hee.; 3 July 2008 at 08:10

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Where I"m coming from - !CAUTION! a bit of a polemic

Firstly, there is nothing more important than me and my family. The most precious thing I can give them (including me) is time. In my job, with all it's pressures, I singularly failed to do this. So we run for the hills and try to redress the balance.

Secondly, climate change is happening. It's a cataclysm, the scope of which is beyond our comprehension. This is why we are doing so little to stop it - we just cant imagine the scale of the upheavals to come, and we can't imagine how we, as individuals, can stop it.

Everything is stacked against effective action. Our economy is driven by consumerism and it is consumerism that is driving climate change. Our political leaders are paralysed - to curb consumerism would cripple the economic engine. We increasingly define ourselves by our economic position and the things we buy. We are what we buy. What politician dare restrict our ability to buy, our ability to define ourselves? It would attack our very self and would be political suicide.

And anyway, the real power lies with money - and the people with money want us to consume and they spend millions every second of the day persuading us to consume more. What hope do we have against such power? And everything we buy pumps a little more CO2 into the atmosphere.

Thirdly, I am no saint. I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to change my life for the benefit of myself, and, I hope, the planet. Ultimately my reasons for doing this are selfish, and although I'll do what I can to keep my carbon footprint low, I'll make many choices that are not so good for the planet. Like anyone, I can only voluntarily make changes to my life at the speed I can. I don't intend to beat myself up over this - I do intend to change faster than most.

Fourthly, there is hope. Our lust to consume is a very recent phenomena. Not so long ago we principally defined ourselves by our relationships with friends and family and place and we defined ourselves by our usefulness to society. I believe that climate change will force us out of consumerism, and in its place we will find those core values, and rediscover a sense of wellbeing that is so missing from our current fractured existence.

There are lots of examples where this is starting to happen. The transition town movement is one - people getting together and learning to appreciate the things and people around them. I played a small part in helping Sustaining Dunbar get off the ground. (http://edubuzz.org/blogs/sustainingdunbar/about-us) What I found there were people striving to build a positive and resilient future and there are transition towns popping up all over the place - a really positive movement. (find out more about transition towns)

Fifthly, At the end of the day it's all bollocks. So let's all go off and have some fun - it's the most important thing we can do - but let's just try to do it without killing the planet in the process.

Things I"m going to miss

Run for the hills

Wednesday 2 July 2008

sunrise 04:14, sunset 22:25

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