Run for the hills: "Daddy, when you lie on your back in the water like that, your nipples look like udders"

Sunday 27 July 2008

"Daddy, when you lie on your back in the water like that, your nipples look like udders"

There - proof we went swimming yesterday - I couldn't make a comment like that up.

It was great fun and we spent nearly two hours in the water. The water was warm in places and freezing in others. And we finished it off with a fish supper. Fab.

4 comments:

Lulu Stader said...: Just back from a swim in the sea myself, it's fantastic, isn't it? I'm sorry that none of you guys is taking photos!; 27 July 2008 at 17:58
The Speaking Goat said...: Do you really think people want to see pictures of my udders?; 28 July 2008 at 10:31
Marguerite Manteau-Rao said...: Simon, thanks for stopping La Marguerite, and for leaving such a gentle, concerned comment. You led me back here, to your blog, and I want to thank you, for inspiring me, with your own journey. I spent much of my youth on my maternal grandparents' farm, back in France, and the life you have chosen brings back many fond memories.

http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/tipping-point-for-green-consciousness-not-quite-there/; 28 July 2008 at 22:00
Anonymous said...: I'd have thought you'd have worn off your man-breasts by now with all the work going on up there.

Just wondered if you'd ever seen stuff about this before?
WWW.water4gas.com
For real? Looks very convincing. A few other sites about it too.
See y'all soon,

MikeTheBike

P.S Spooky, but the word verification box below is asking me to type the characters displayed which are 'XLTHVEG' (Excel the Veg!). Seems to be something that's happening with your garden!; 28 July 2008 at 23:05

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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

Sunday 27 July 2008

"Daddy, when you lie on your back in the water like that, your nipples look like udders"

4 comments:

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