This September we rented a cottage on a river bank in the Lake District which Marie had chosen so that I could dust off my fly fishing rods which have not been used for the past few years. The river, which runs through the Dudden valley at Ulpha and flows into the sea at Barrow in Furnace, is a ‘spate’ river. This means that heavy rain in the hills can raise water levels quickly but also makes it suitable for fly fishing or spinning for Salmon and Sea Trout.
I had spent a happy hour waxing my lines and cleaning my tackle the previous week, and so, with the Shogun packed and our house sitters waving goodbye, we cheerily set out for Cumbria. At Chester I realised, too late, that I had omitted to pack the rods and so, in true British fashion, we carried on. The holiday was not spoilt however because we had more time to do other things. In fact, we had such a pleasant time we gave no thought to what ‘might have been.’
Like us, I expect every reader has planned something but then had to respond to the unforeseen, and, in so doing found a pleasure in that change.
This thought came to mind a couple of weeks ago during dinner with friends in Newark. They were keen to discuss their worries over Brexit and were full of the “What if” type of question. What if the Germans do this, or the French do that, or Italy collapses? I puzzled for a while until I realised that life is not a game of chess where one can plan dozens of moves ahead and then be certain of the outcome. Life is different in that the rules change from one day to the next. An earthquake, a death, a change of government, an accident, a war or a diplomatic spat can change everything. Furthermore, just think of the unplanned changes brought about by technology!
We all know the axiom that there are only two certainties in life: Death and Taxation, and as a young man I remember addressing an audience of businessmen in the USA and telling them that there is no such a thing as a problem, there are only ‘situations’ and whether we view that situation as a problem or an opportunity depends on our vision for the future. “Much better” I said, “to see a situation as an opportunity than a problem because it is easier to fall asleep at night with one’s head full of opportunities than a head full of problems.” Due to youthful exuberance I may have overstated the point a tad, but fifty years later I still think the principle is right.
This morning, a friend and I mowed the churchyard and afterwards sat on a seat enjoying the view and musing on the lives of all those folk buried beneath us. No doubt half of them saw problems and the other half saw opportunities, but the fact is that, life has changed, and they are all now dependent on folks such as you and me to keep their churchyard a quiet and peaceful place.
We then discussed local wildlife and of how our attitude towards squirrels is different to that of the rarely seen hedgehog, beset as it is with loss of habitat and predation from badgers and foxes. Moreover rabbits, though multitudinous in spring, have practically succumbed to myxomatosis and so numbers are down to manageable proportions. On the other hand, our farm buildings are home to more sparrows than we have seen for years and, along with the odd tree creeper are a welcome sight. As for squirrels, the autobiography of the journalist Jeremy Paxman reveals his answer, which is to sit on the upstairs lavatory and shoot them through the open window.
Finally, my eye was drawn to a journalistic piece in Der Spiegel about how unwelcome economic changes may be handled across Europe. Originally in German, when the article was translated into English the headline read;
Greece will halt the production of Humus and Taramasalata to avoid a double dip recession.
View from the Pew 