The Errant Orange

I was about 10 years old. I was walking along, approaching the hill which led to the railway bridge on my way to school, just like any other morning. A man went past me on his bicycle and he too was about to negotiate the hill. I could see from the clothes he was wearing that he was on his way to put in a hard day’s work at one of the factories nearby. I smiled as I observed the little white plastic box strapped to the rack on the back of his bike, which surely held his provisions for the day’s efforts. I wouldn’t have thought anything more of it, except that just as he was about to start up the hill, he went over a bump and his lunch-box fell off the bike and broke open. His orange rolled away from him as he stopped to try to put things back together. I didn’t say anything to him (I was only 10!) but it made me think how easy it is for people’s lives to be upset, even when they are minding their own business. So try to always be nice to people, they may be having a hard day!

The Interview and The Reason

It is sometimes said that dates are like interviews. A little cynical, I know, but I think there is some truth in that statement. You talk to a person to see if they are right for the job. There are of course some important distinctions: Like the fact that the boss-candidate imbalance is replaced by equality, and that the word 'job' is a spectacularly inadequate synonym for 'lover, best friend, intrepid partner in this adventure called life and...(this definition goes on and indeed evolves, often influenced by the very person which it seeks to define)', anyway that's a whole other stream of thought... back to the reason for this post. So what leads us to fall in love? Well, it was whilst considering the analogy of The Interview (the capitals are intentional!) that something interesting came to mind. The transcript of an interview alone will not lead you to fall in love. There are many other subtle influences, such as the way she/he looks at you, the timing of their movements, the way they pause to think, the way they smile and the way they touch you. People find these influences hard to explain so they are sometimes overlooked when trying to understand attraction in a relationship. Far from being just subtle nuances of character, I think observation of these signs will lead you to The Reason.

A Clear Sign

I don't care if my glass is half empty or half full. There is a smiley in my glass: Life is good
: )

Why this blog?

When I was studying Music and Writing at Manchester Met University (around 1998) I heard Bono from U2 say that art is about turning the personal into the universal. I felt that this was an important statement and I mentioned it to one of my writing teachers. She paused for a moment and said 'Indeed, or perhaps art is about turning the universal into the personal'. This also seemed true. In fact, considering both statements together brought me closer to understanding the fundamental truth underpinning these thoughts. It is our attempts to turn the universal into the personal and the personal into the universal that motivate us to create art, be it visual arts, theatre, music, writing, dance or indeed any kind of expression: We want to understand and we want to be understood. We want to immerse ourselves in the myriad of experiences of this wonderful world and we hope that our words and actions contribute positively to the lives of others now and in the future. Welcome to my blog. Comments are welcome!