Walking Commentary
Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023
Surplus
You instinctively know how to gauge restaurant sizes or bus capacity by seat count rather than floor area. But would you buy farmland by the hectare or the number of goats it can support? We humans make value assessments in our personal lives all day long and rarely pause to question if the way we do it is appropriate.
It was back in 2003 when first I read that John Pilger had won the Sophie Prize. He was surprised, to judge from the tone of his acceptance speech. His journalism has always been quite outspoken about the imperialist and colonialist agendas of many ‘western’ countries like his native Australia, the UK and of course, the US.
I’ve been asked more than once about what I consider to be my favourite post so far. It’s hard to remember them all and besides, I’m uncomfortable selecting let alone rating my own stuff. Perhaps Dream might be the most satisfying favourite or recently, I enjoyed writing Time Reverses. I also enjoyed being the lead in the story of failing to get a good shot of the moon in Sea and Light, only to get a better shot than I could have imagined. Who knows, perhaps readers might one day tell me their favourites?
No matter what I read or see of the great monochrome photographers, whether it be Ansel Adams or Edward Weston or Michael Kenna or Edward Steichen or perhaps Donn McCullin or Vivian Maier, I don’t seem to learn enough to be satisfied with my own efforts. These people are some of the greatest proponents of their arts but sometimes their superb work undermines rather than inspires. I think these are normal but sometimes very frustrating limits on our aspirations. As I was taught when I had motorcycle racing aspirations, if you see someone in your mirror that wasn’t there last time you looked, give way, because they are better than you.
The new trading complications for a partitioned island half in the European Union got me thinking about something Peter Frankopan wrote. He opined that ‘US policy … is being developed in response to Chinese and Russian plans, rather than offering an independent and autonomous vision …’ This quote was in The New Silk Roads, in the chapter about roads to future, about Africa, and US policies where US support is described as being matched to US priorities rather than the needs of the supported.
I made some notes this morning as I was having my coffee and granola. I’d been thinking about today’s perihelion before I was diverted. The sun, if you see it, is five million kilometres closer than it will be in July though it’s not much closer than it was yesterday or will be tomorrow. So don’t expect it look any bigger.
