What is Freedom, really?

I grew up in the 60's - not the swinging 60's you understand, the swing hadn't swung as far as my town. The 60's for me were a time of wonder and possibility. There was talk of a passenger jet that would travel twice the speed of sound and the possibility that men would actually travel to the moon. It seemed like anything could happen. Who would have guessed then that the supersonic jet would be retired without replacement and that manned space flight would find a sterile rock and go no further? For me one the most exciting possibilities of the 60's was in the exploits of Jacques Cousteau. Even in black and white his TV programme seemed vivid, colourful and full of possibilities. Wouldn't it be wonderful to explore the Undersea World that he had found? I never believed I would get the chance, but get it I did. Just before our first child came along my wife and I splashed out on a holiday to Australia, and of course that means the Great Barrier Reef. The sights I saw there burned so strongly onto my retina even a week later I could close my eyes and be back there again, floating on the surface looking down at the coral world. I was so enthused that I later wrote a lullaby about it for my new baby girl (you can read and listen to it here: Michaelmas Cay).

Snorkelling amongst the coloured fishes of the reef was a delight and then I had the chance to try scuba diving too. But you know, I didn't really like it. I preferred the freedom of snorkelling. My problem was that there were so many rules with scuba diving. Watch the pressure and the time, always dive with a buddy. With snorkelling I just pulled on a mask and swam where I liked. No one told me what I had to do. For me the freedom of scuba diving was just an illusion. But isn't that true of all the activities that promise freedom: Flying has air traffic controllers and flight lanes. Sailing is likewise. Skydiving - well you can only do that by going through all the training. And the biggest illusion of them all is Driving: You can't just hit the open road and drive where you like, there are signs and signal to obey, speed limits to observe and a test to pass too.

So does freedom really exist anywhere? I'd say it depends on your definition. Ultimately the universe can only spin around one centre and we would all like that centre to be ourself. If you have more than one centre you have conflict, and me exercising my 'freedom' will, at some point, infringe on you exercising yours. But I have come to have a view of freedom as 'freedom to choose'. If all we are is a product of our genes and moulded by our experiences then it someone knew us well enough, all our actions and reactions would be predictable because we are contained by who we've become. So we have no real choice in how we react, it's a product of who we are - we are our 'father's son' and 'the apple didn't fall far from the tree'. But if we join a different family we will have a new heritage and for the first time the opportunity to really choose. This is something I wrote more about in my parable of 'The Crab'.

So there is true freedom in this world, if it's freedom to choose to be something better than what we've become.

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Why does everyone want to be a Celebrity?

Unless you manage to avoid the TV, radio and the press you can’t escape it: Our society is obsessed with the cult of celebrity. Has it always been this way? I think that it probably has. But with rolling news and the internet, we experience news, as it happens, like never before, including celebrity news.. Significantly, the modern celebrity doesn't need to have done anything noteworthy to require celebrating. In particular, reality TV throws up 'stars' who have, as yet, shown no noteworthy skill or achievement. It's now well know that in surveys children no longer want to grow up to be teachers and doctors, like they used to, but to be sports stars and pop stars. On talent shows you can regularly hear the same words tumble from the lips of gifted and dreadful singers alike: "It’s my dream", "Singing’s my life", "I really, really want this". Is there really such a fine line between genius and delusion, or is there something more going on here? Read More »
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New Dog, God Knew (almost a palindrome)

Don't you find that a story means so much more when you find out that it's true? And very occasionally something that starts out as a story becomes a reality. Well, this is one such case...

I found it mildly surprising that many of our friends had our family down as the last people they would expect to get a dog. I grew up with a dog. Admittedly I don't like being licked by them, I feel a little uncomfortable when people elevate them to human status and I definitely don't like the smell of 'wet dog' but otherwise ... I like them.

The rest of my family had wanted a dog for ages but I was holding out - I knew who would have to walk it in the cold, the wet and the dark. But then my wife found a photo of 'Scrumpy' on a dog rescue centre's website, and I caved in. There was little chance to go back on the decision as, only 5 days later the dog was with us. All we know of Scrumpy's story is that he was found as a stray in Ireland, he had wire wrapped around his mussel and had lost some teeth and skin as a result. When he first arrived we hadn't known if he even had a bark. Read More »
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Parables, Preaching and Toxic Waste

I have always thought in metaphor and simile. From a young age it seemed natural to me to translate a concept from one form to another, just to prove I'd grasped it. When the same thing happens to a story the result is a parable. It might be simple and charming, it might even tug at an emotion, but at first glance it appears no more than a story. The power of a parable is in that 'ah-ha' moment, when I realise what the story means in its own parallel universe. So because of the way that my thinking is wired it seemed inevitable that I would be drawn to writing in parables just as I was first attracted to reading them.

Of course there was one man above any other associated with parables. Jesus was the master of the medium. In fact the Bible says that "he did not say anything to them without using a parable"(a). Now here's a curious thing: It seemed that most of the original hearers of these parables did not understand them. Even those closest to Jesus had to come and ask what they meant!(b) What Jesus spoke to that first audience was radical and completely different from anything they had heard. So why would he choose a form of communication that the people didn't understand? The answer is surprising, but obvious - he didn't want them to understand; Read More »
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Why a small boy loved the beach

The beach is one of my favourite places to be - it's the sounds of a breaking wave followed by pebbles tumbling back under the next one, or the distant roar of bigger surf carrying over a long flat sandy beach; it's the sun on my face and the soft, warm sand between my toes; it's the distant intensity of the horizon that stretches each way into my peripheral vision; it's the way the sounds of children playing and people talking seem close, yet distant at the same time, but somehow they don't intrude as the sun shines red through my closed eyelids.

Whilst reflecting on what makes the beach such a special place for me, the thought occurred that the best of the beach is not what it is, but what it isn't ... Picture this :

The sand is criss-crossed by ropes that form an orderly grid. Some of the plots have 'Reserved' signs in them - these are for the season ticket holders. Visitors are queuing back into the dunes waiting for the next 'day-plot' to become available, each one clutching a credit card ready to pay (family discounts are available). An official patrols Read More »
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10cc and a charming transgression

I remember when I first heard the song in the 70's. Like many others I was mesmerised by the swirling, velvety instrumentation and backing vocals. Back then was impossibly new. But for me there was something else even. I once heard the song playing on the radio and as it started to fade the DJ came in with the words, "That's 10cc with 'I'm not in Love' - A love song if ever I heard one". The words seemed to crash the moment and break the secret. Yes, it was true, but it felt like it should not have been spoken. I had recognised that the genius of that song was that the listener saw, more clearly, the heart and desire of the singer than he did himself. So, as odd as it seems, it felt to me that this DJ was being insensitive. I don't think I consciously recognised all this at the time but, as a writer of children's stories, it's an approach that I have instinctively taken up myself, where the reader understands what is going on before the central character does himself.

Sometimes I see things before they arrive but other times it can take a while before the important point dawns on me. To make the point another, more recent, memory comes to Read More »
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