The Full I Am

Do you know why you admire the entertainers you do?

If you're a woman who watches TV on a Sunday night then it's easy. 

You admire pretty men shot in nice lighting, who take their shirts off. 

Well done girls. 

I know it's all about emancipation nowadays but the ratings don't lie and I forgive you need for pornography. Men are shits.

I'm really speaking to the more discerning sort.

Not men. 

Because it you're a "man" who fulfils his destiny and watches Sky sports, then you admire morons who kick a ball about. I'm not saying the occasional footballer didn't get an O level, but generally...

The first of these two groups have never done it for me. If Poldark manages to keep his shirt on for the full 60 then I'm good with that.

There was a time when Newcastle United made me party to the second but not anymore. There's no inspirational Bobby Robson, no Kevin Keegan.

There's a fat man who exploits and abuses 17,000 employees, and for some reason isn't in jail. He owns the footballers who entertain you. 

Ask me to admire him. 

Go on. 

I dare you.

And I think I have just realised why they don't impress me much. 

There is no risk.

Barring the occasional penalty taker, they put nothing on the line.

It leaves the footballers with plenty of time to concentrate on their vanity, Vanity, and Hello magazine photo shoots. (Forgive me the Oxford comma...I've never used one before... and the joke seemed to require it).

Their designer T-shirts should really read "I had one job".

They're not to be admired, any more than the politician who has never done a day's serious work in their life in any sort of business. Ever. 

But then of course worshipping politicians is not something we suffer from.

Is it, Keith Vaz?

The people I admire are the artists. The risk-takers. 

They actually risk too much. 

The ones who strip themselves to the bone. Who expose themselves to the world. They take a hit on their soul, to their mental health, and on their sense of identity.

They don't always get it right.

Many shouldn't try.

Yes, there is vanity, and yes some things should not make it to the stage. 

Some things should be left in a diary. Not all forms of expression are interchangeable.

But in its purest form, there's more truth in theatrical entertainment than anywhere else.

Watch our entertainers.

Naked and alert.

Taking little (generally), and yielding all (frequently).

Going against the flow but surrendering to a ripple.

Support our entertainment in all its forms. 

It is not just the trapeze artist who puts it all on the line... for you.

And if you haven't seen it, catch the remake of Are You Being Served? on iPlayer.

It's a hoot.

Quotable Me 22

Go for Life. 

Before Life comes for you.

None

Maybe we move in different circles.

But I haven't seen a nun for ages

Hard times

It turns out that strippers don't take credit notes.
Even ones that promise to pay the barer on demand.

Re-Entropy Into the Atmosphere

Modern life, eh?

It's complicated, isn't it?

The decisions we take. 

The decisions that take us.

But what are we really doing?

In a word, I think...

in one single word...

..connecting.

Or choosing not to.

But there are rules of connecting. Aren't there?

No?

Yes?

What are yours?

It used to be simple... to avoid religion or politics.

But you're not so dim that you still think that will do? Are you? 

Tell me you are not.

Maybe you don't even think that is true?

Or have you never given it a moment's thought?

Oh god...you haven't, haven't you?

Oh, sweet Lord, no. You're a monster.

Theres is too much work to do than  I can cover here.

Please. Start. Somewhere.

You won't.  But you should.

Connecting is a note, a decision, a gift.

You create molecules, matter. Something that is more than the sum of its parts.

But there is a cost to that that the laws of the Universe demand.

The cost is risk...standing, credibility, vanity, love or whatever you may define as any or all of those.

That is the cost of risking connection.

Because that is what it takes to obey the Universe.

It is inescapable.

It is the price of creating a beautiful thing from absolutely nothing, say it again. 

It is the price of reversing entropy.

The only remaining question is...who is prepared to pay it?

One hand, one bounce

I've just seen a video of somebody playing French cricket ( Prince Harry actually)

What an utterly joyful game. That takes me back.

Skittish fun, with minimal chance of a concussion or getting your teeth knocked out.

Anybody fancy a game?

The Human 'art

The sensitivity in the artist is the price of seeing the world and playing it back.

Assimilating and re-offering it rather than excluding it.

Normally, this sort of exposure would make your skin leathery and tough. 

But the artist surrenders their innate resistance. 

Oft unwisely.

They may try to remember that being strong and being hard are different things.

It's not work-life balance. That's far too simplistic. 

It's wading in the world without getting sucked in, up or under.

Many fade, give up or resist. They build barricades. 

We all do in the end.

Your charitable thoughts may persist but you may outsource them to a registered organisation...someone to do the caring for you. Someone who will invite you to a ball.

I am not going to beat anyone up about it as long as they start to be honest with themselves.

Resistance isn't futile. 

It's sound survival strategy.

1sT Place

There's been a lot written about tea down the years, as a compass of tradition or as a counsellor, or lifter of spirits.

It's trashy badboy brother 'coffee' has tried to compete by claiming every bogus benefit from preventing diabetes to curing cancer. All nonsense curated by those who respond to the mild stimulant.

Tea wins. 

Beacuse at the end of the day, tea is the difference between immorality and immortality.

The Pursuit of Cake

How do you like to talk?

I like all types of talky talky.

But I think I really need occasional deep conversation that I can acquit in an apparently trivial way.

Thickies, of course are going to glaze over at this point. 

Don't get me wrong. I like the thick. Mainly because they don't know who they are. Which is fait-accompli-funny. They may be lawyers, teachers, doctors....but let's face it, they are lawyers mainly. The other jobs come with little free entitlement and have to process people rather than positions. They have to be more humble, more human. Don't tell the lawyers that..because they won't understand (And it's not even all lawyers, more usually it's their friends).

Go deep. And unwise people get deep on you. People not capable of remaining trivial (and so really should not be let loose in public).

So go trivial with them. 

Don't bring up anything too challenging. 

You get more cake that way. 

Because that's the way trivia works

Little by Skittle

Life is about pushing through and pressing on.

The things you knock over should be skittles not safety blocks.

You may decide you're the sort of person who doesn't stop but you still have to know when to turn. 

Ninety...

One eighty...

Three sixty...

All different decisions.

If you drill through plaster, you should know where the cables are.

That's why the same rules don't work for everybody.

People who succeed with the 'safety on' are just lucky.

But luck is informed.

The moment of luck has been prepared for.

When you walk through life with purpose and drive, then drive carefully.

It's about being a force of nature. 

Not a weapon of mass destruction.