It's a shock to suddenly notice that I am a childless orphan, possibly stuck behind enemy lines, in a world that seems to be unravelling. We are teetering in a strange balance between building on the achievements of the past and desperately trying to dismantle them. In many countries, the current generation is poorer than the previous one, upending generations of dreams by working class parents and migrants for a better life for their children. In this time of upheaval and change – both good and bad – creativity is needed like never before.
Beginnings, middles and ends
Creativity and destruction, beginnings, middles and ends – they are all intertwined. Once we went to parties, now we go to funerals – perhaps the two are connected. When life finally gives up the ghost, whether you’re famous to the whole planet or just to your own friends and family, everyone is a hero in their own small way and a loss to the world when they go.
Beginnings, middles and ends
Creativity and destruction, beginnings, middles and ends – they are all intertwined. Once we went to parties, now we go to funerals – perhaps the two are connected. When life finally gives up the ghost, whether you’re famous to the whole planet or just to your own friends and family, everyone is a hero in their own small way and a loss to the world when they go.
A man and his boy, the Central Highlands of Tasmania - the end of the Earth in the middle of nowhere.
I was remembering someone I used to work with a lifetime ago, someone even older than me, who had lived in England at one stage and owned a house in France. I wondered if she has gone back there when she retired. My fellow traveller said ‘she’s probably dead’ and I thought that perhaps people already wondered that about me – ‘whatever happened to such and such, he’s probably dead by now.’
