A sceptic's take on being human – or should that be virtuous?
Looks, feels, smells like Spring
Celandines and friends in Henrietta Park
At last! a proper spring morning; one to get us out on our favourite circular walk along the river and back along the Kennet and Avon canal. I suppose I could lend it a bit of spurious significance by calling it a transect but today was about the sun on our faces, warming us right through. Of course we noticed the sheer dynamic of plant growth but my notebook stayed in my pocket as we paid more attention to the nest building swans on the canal and the birdsong everywhere. The power of spring is unstoppable and knowing the succession of plants in the same spot year after year only makes it more impressive – or should I say awe inspiring. Spring is so transient that it’s almost a spiritual exercise in non-attachment. We can wonder at its beauty whilst knowing all along that it all passes. No place here for bitter reflection or clinging to the moment – it comes, it lifts our spirits and it passes and we can give silent thanks for that little shared moment.
In Henrietta Park we passed a Birch tree that expressed something of the paradoxical nature of life. I can’t recall ever seeing a tree so knackered by galls and outgrowths and yet still possessed of a strange beauty. Just down the path a great tree stump which last year boasted a large crop of Oyster fungus, is being rapidly consumed by other fungal rotters.
So let’s not call the walk a transect although we do it twice or three times a week, and let’s call it a conversation over time between sentient beings of wholly different orders, and I have to confess that this morning I think we both identified more with the knackered tree and yet – reading Oliver Rackham’s extraordinary book “Woodlands” – (P. 38 in my paperback edition) trees have their own strategies for longevity, none of which require expensive creams or medications. I think this one caught my mournful meditation on the fragility of life and whispered to me “Get over yourself and enjoy the sun!” So that’s what we did!
I've spent my life doing a lot of things, all of them interesting and many of them great fun.
When most people see my CV they probably think I'm making things up because it includes being a rather bad welder and engineering dogsbody, a potter, a groundsman and bus driver. I taught in a prison and in one of those ghastly old mental institutions as an art therapist and I spent ten years as a community artist. I was one of the founding members of Spike Island, which began life as Artspace Bristol. ! wrote a column for Bristol Evening Post (I got sacked three times, in which I take some pride) and I worked in local and network radio and then finally became an Anglican parish priest for 25 years, retiring at 68 when I realised that the institutional church and me were on different paths.
What interests me? It would be easier to list what doesn't, but I love cooking and baking with our home grown ingredients. I'm fascinated by botany and wildlife in general, and botanical illustration. We have a camper van that takes us to the wild places, we love walking, especially in the hills, and we take too many photographs.
But what really animates me is the question "what does it mean to be human?". I've spent my life exploring it in every possible way and the answer is ..... well, today it's sitting in the van in the rain and looking across Ramsey Sound towards Ramsey Island. But it might as easily be digging potatoes or making pickle, singing or finding an orchid or just sitting. But it sure as hell doesn't mean getting a promotion, beasting your co-workers or being obsequious to power, which ensured that my rise to greatness in the Church of England flatlined 30 years ago after about 2 days. But I'm still here and still searching for that elusive sweet spot, and I don't have to please anyone any more.
Over the last 50 or so years we've had a succession of gardens, some more like wildernesses when we were both working full-time, but now we're back in the game with our two allotments in Bath.
View all posts by Dave Pole
