Life – Page 34 – Achilles & Aristotle

Hell in a handcart

We were burgled last weekend. Not a massive disaster, but unsettling none the less.

As I hacked back the plant to reveal an old burglar alarm box, and then drove to the badlands of London to recycle the clippings; I was sent, en route, to buy a replacement Xbox at Argos, in order to cheer up the kids.

It set me thinking. What kind of a society do we live in, when someone is prepared to risk incarceration to nick our old out-of-date Xbox 360? Who is desperate enough to give them a bundle of notes to own it? And why am I here, perpetuating this ‘circle of life’, scrabbling with everyone else for a metal and plastic electronic narcotic, which sends healthy minds to sleep…

Hmmm.

I’m reading Neil MacGregor’s terrific book Germany: Memories of a Nation – its history seen through the prism of fascinating lives, inventions and objects. It brings together a story of what is ‘Germany’ in images and items, from the Renaissance prints of Durer to the Bauhaus-inspired gates of despair at Buchenwald, here:

Jedem das seine: “to each his due”, as the proverbial and double-edged sign reads.

At the top is MacGregor’s picture of one of the millions of traditional handcarts, in which even more millions of displaced people carried what little they could; across fought over and destroyed lands. When the world has literally gone to “hell in a handcart” of what value are material wealth and possessions?

MacGregor’s story makes you think about, care about and better understand Germany. It’s also a reminder that acquisitiveness and retribution are the twin roads to perdition. Happiness, for people or countries, is not found in revenge or fighting for more stuff.

Life, Work

Friction

Friction: the force resisting the relative motion of solids, fluids and materials moving against each other.

A week of friction, heat and bother. It’s a mug’s game to try to move things faster than contradictory natures allow – but I fall for it every time…

People, organisations and situations exert a constant pull. So the occasional ‘moonlike’ bound forward is illusory – gravity always pull you back to earth.

Easy to think you’re doing the Lord’s work; trying to fix what needs fixing. But fix things too fast and people complain: “What’s going on, what are you doing, you didn’t tell me, what does it mean for me, why?”

As so often, slowing down a bit is probably the answer. Fix less, explain more. Then who knows? Perhaps less will need fixing.

At the very least, there’ll be less friction from the atmosphere.

Life, Work

The Eagle has landed

After untold aggro, angst and argy-bargy the Eagle has landed; albeit bumpily and at the very last minute.

18 months of unending bother. Much of which late at night, at weekends or when on family holidays.

The bane of my working life now sits resolved, in plain English, on the brightly lit surface of a website – visible to all.

Done. Dusted. Thank the heavens.

Life

Marvellous Creations

Feeling a bit tired and blue today, I find myself a moment’s respite from what everyone else wants from me – a coffee, an iPhone and a moment to reflect.

This has been a week which felt unsettling at times; change, uncertainty and risk in the air on all fronts. But also a week where I found moments to speak, write, talk and laugh.

Sitting here, there’s an oppressive sense of the potential pointlessness of a lot if it. Tearing around on seemingly big things which may not turn out to be the big things at all. But who can say?

So at the same time as the big things, it’s important to work on the small things.

I just danced an impromptu kitchen Tchaikovsky waltz and Rossini jig with my daughter – me humming, her smiled happily and turning and twirling with me.

The boy for his part, is drawing an intricate space battle scene. And I’ve made Lebanese chicken soup for lunch.

The sun is swinging round to our little garden; at the same time as the spin drier rattles to a conclusion and workmen drill, sand and scrape at our missing front windows.

Life goes on. But at its best is encapsulated this week in a small bar of Cadburys ‘Marvellous Creations.’ One of my laughs this week was about the ‘evil genius’ sister of a woman I work with – she invents ‘Marvellous Creations’ for Cadbury.

It takes an ‘evil genius’ to combine bog standard British milk chocolate with jelly bits, tiny smarties and the killer ingredient – popping candy – or ‘space dust’ as we knew it as kids. Once you’ve tasted it, ordinary chocolate is soooo flat.

Some of the ingredients you can’t do much about. But the secret of cheering up life, is to keep finding and mixing the smarties, jelly bits and space dust into it.

Achilles, Life

With a little help from my friends

The song says it all. It can sound cheesy; but it ain’t… This week, I got by with a little help from my friends.

The genuine care, interest, support and love of friends has gently and kindly steered me to a much better place. If last week ended in comparative darkness; this one ended in light.

A good friend briefly home from abroad, walked with me, talked with me and in the process put a supportive arm around my shoulders. The world of men can be a lonely place, but together we stared unblinkingly at the facts. And in so doing he gave me solace and strength – and followed up with a new opportunity.

More joyfully, with my great friend from closer to home, we celebrated our mutual success at goading each other to shed a few pounds – with a big fat gourmet cheeseburger each.

Today I’m wearing a sweatshirt the missus bought me for the Xmas before last – which for the first time in all that time, I fit in; trimly and unselfconsciously. Happy days.

Finally the missus herself. She knows I’ve been struggling and has been there for me all week. A kind word, a cuppa, a conversation – and a great big uninterrupted lie-in this morning.

The moral of the story; we all get by far better with a little help from our friends.