What’s something you’d love to see in the future, but know you probably won’t live to witness?
I would love to see an agreement across countries that climate change is the single biggest threat to our way of life. I would love to see politicians of all backgrounds and political philosophies work together to tackle this issue. I would love to see the ultra rich use their political power and huge reserves of money to find solutions to this problem rather than add a few billion to their riches that they will already find impossible to spend in ten lifetimes let alone one.
Not only will I not live to see this, no one will. Human nature is based on conflict not cooperation. It is based upon a determination to demonise those we disagree with rather than a determination to understand them. It is based on greed not generosity. That is why climate changes will gather pace and humanity will just watch, argue and do nothing as the world falls to pieces around us.
Do you believe in minimalism?
OK, full disclosure, I have a reputation in my family for being an inveterate hoarder! It’s a reputation I have had a lot of trouble living down, but the truth is that I do keep a lot of things and I find a kind of comfort in that. From childhood onwards I have collected things, books, records, football stickers and then VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs and Blu Rays, programmes from plays, concerts and sporting events and signed photos. You get the picture I’m sure!Over the years I have started to change the intensity of my collecting habits. I have started to recycle what I can or to donate lots of things to local charity shops and some downsizing has occurred.
However, I don’t buy into the idea that a minimalist life is a rewarding one. For me, possessions are part of my story. In our digital world, real artefacts may soon be a thing of the past. It is easy to see a representation of a person on a screen, but that representation is curated to give the view that person wants to project. Books, CDs, Records and physical photos are our lives in reality. Why do I keep my records from years ago? I do it because each one was played, enjoyed and gave an insight into the person I was and, to some extent, still am.
I may downsize, I may reduce but minimalism will never appeal to me! Beware, the photos below may trigger those of a minimalist mindset 🤔 🤣
What’s a moment in your life that felt like it was straight out of a movie?
When I lived in Japan I went to one sight more than any other because I couldn’t wait to introduce friends and family to the Giant Buddha of Nara known as the Daibutsen. I probably went about a dozen times in three years and on each occasion it was cinematic in the very best way.
You approach the monument on a wide path and the first thing you see is a massive shrine entrance. Once you get through that you can see the biggest wooden building in the world and I think it’s really that that takes your breath away. It’s a widescreen moment that the top picture doesn’t do proper justice to. Once you get in, though, you have a proper ‘Wow’ moment when you see this massive statue towering over you with an expression of calm that is just outside of all proportion to the rest of the world. Again, the small picture definitely doesn’t do it justice. Believe me when I say, that if you were to decide on a new list of wonders of the world, it would be a huge omission if it was not to include the Giant Buddha of Nara.
Above are five photos from a two week visit to Australia. The top two pictures are Palm Beach, better known as Summer Bay from Home and Away, the only soap I still watch. The surf lifesaving boat was great but the view from the lighthouse, Stewart’s Point in the show was epic in a widescreen view. Then we have the world famous Bondi Beach which we have now visited three times, but which we visited on Boxing Day to fulfil a true tourist tradition. Four Mile Beach at Port Douglas, the town where most tourists sail out to the Barrier Reef from, is simply stunning and nowhere near as crowded as the Sydney beaches. Finally I have a picture from the New Year’s Eve fireworks in Sydney. On our last trip, to celebrate my cousin Stuart’s 80th birthday we treated him to New Year’s Eve fireworks from a boat in the middle of the harbour with fireworks going off all around us. Now there’s a moment when life really did seem like a film!!
If I have inspired you to go to any of those places I have done my job! 🌞🎆🐠
Go on a walk today and share a photo of something that catches your eye.
This sign is opposite my house. In fact it’s one of two on two patches of green in our very quiet road. We have an obesity problem in the UK, a problem that has been made worse by the poor provision of PE and sport in the vast majority of our schools, the driving around of children who would have walked when I was younger, and the appeal of smartphones and tablets. When I was younger, schools were very focused on physical activities, often activities that pupils did not enjoy! Very few parents drove their children to school. In fact it was unusual for them to drive you anywhere unless they chose to! Requests for a lift were often knocked back with advice to walk or take a bus. In terms of indoor distractions we of course had the TV but we also had test cards and closedowns so even the most enthusiastic telly addict would have the opportunity to go out.
When you look at the No Ball Games sign it is a sign of intolerance towards children. To avoid noise, mischief and occasional carelessness we have said to children you aren’t welcome to be children. As a kid I played on patches of grass, in the streets and at local parks. Of these, only parks remain and even they are less common these days as more and more housing is built, housing out of the reach of most families with young children. The opportunities for children to exercise on a day to day basis are way more restrictive and restricted than they were in my childhood. Can we really be surprised that the first generation of adults who faced the problems I outlined, are often obese due to never developing the habit of exercising and are raising children who similarly have this lack of opportunity and resultant aversion to physical activity.
If we want to improve the fitness of society as a whole we need to remove signs like that.
What’s the first book you ever finished and still remember to this day?
When I was 8 years old I went to stay with my grandparents in a village called Felsted in Essex. There was a marvellous little bookshop that I spent ages in during my stay with them. I bought three books I remember very clearly, Dr Who and the Daleks, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and A Bear Called Paddington. I still have copies of the last two although I regretfully got rid of all my Target Books and they are now expensive to buy on ebay! Oh well!
A Bear Called Paddington is the first book in the series and forms the basis of the first film that had such success. It is the story of the bear of the title and his attempts to fit in with the human world under the guidance of his adoptive family The Brown’s. As a young child who also had problems fitting in with the rest of the human world I related to Paddington so much both then and now. It’s got hilarious set pieces, life lessons and characters that became as important to me as anyone in the real world. There was a real safety to these books which meant that years after I first read it I still returned to it as I dealt with a world that was even more unfriendly at 18 than it was at 8. I really must read it again, specifically the same copy and one that was signed by Michael Bond himself.
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 