Truly The Best of Us

-


Talking this afternoon about two of the greatest institutions we have left in this benighted archipelago, and we weren't talking about any of the august halls of academe or museums of the arts or institutes of science and technology, and certainly not of the houses of parliament. Far and away above all of them, The Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the Mountain Rescue Services, provide pretty much flawless service to those that need them in very often perilous circumstances, without question or hesitation. They respond immediately to calls for help from those in danger at sea or in the mountains: and as an inhabitant of an area immediately placed between both, their actions are in our consciousness daily.

All of this - true service - is provided by skilled volunteers, who, for no reward other than that of helping a fellow human being itself, regularly put their own lives on the line in some of the most hazardous circumstances imaginable, freely and without expectation of reward. Contrast this with the self-interest of politicians and 'captains of industry' whose expectations are the diametrical opposite: reward expected and contractually bound before services are even rendered, such as they will ever be, in so many cases. How is it that we tolerate as a society this paradoxical disparity of values? We know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Sadly, that's unlikely to change anytime soon, but thankfully there are decent people out there who have your back when you need them most. 

Comments

  1. Anonymous7 March 2024 at 08:04

    I'm glad that I spent my 21st birthday with the Penlee lifeboat crew, who sadly lost their lives 11 years later! The fishermen and the divers that I was training were also GOOD company too.:)
    ATB
    Joe

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Feedback & Wobbles

-
Image
Many years ago I came up with an analogy for poorly damped feedback loops. The feedback loop that prompted this frankly tart analogy was indeed a horror. Anyone who remembers shame-faced their first attempts at clutch control resulting in the good old kangaroo launch across the lights only to stall in the middle of the crossroads will have some idea of the kind of data transfer lag involved in said system. The analogy I made was that of a large blancmange. Untouched, a model of stasis and eminently stable and predictable; but prod the bugger and the resultant chaotic behaviour needs a very complex physical model and some very decent computing horsepower to predict its outputs, if at all. The system in question was a large and complex audio-visual display at what eventually became 'The Electric Mountain' in Llanberis. We were ultimately contracted to maintain the thing having been witness to and peripherally involved in its installation. Certainly not involved in its des
Read more

Sister Ray

-
Image
Ray Keats - aka Ann Key - local artist & family friend, died this morning. She'd been ill for some years, but never let it get in the way of her work or of tending to the massive network of friends, colleagues and fans she had accumulated over the decades. Her house on the High Street of Rachub, just below where we live - a former cockle factory(!) - bought many years ago when she and her late husband Ronald moved here from Manchester to set up home in Yr Achub, is currently still home to her paintings and drawings, and the front window displays her work, including the last drawing she made in hospital, just days before she died. Her good friend Colin has been a diamond in her latter years, looking out for her and just being there when she needed him. She will be much missed by this tiny community of ageing bohemians up here in the hills, but suffice it to say, George, her cat, will be well looked after now she's gone.
Read more

A Time of Connection

-
Image
I was just reflecting on the vacuum of continuity that's left behind when someone dies: that sudden sense of disjoint, of fracture, in one's personal history that takes one completely by surprise at the oddest moments. These pinch-points in memory can often yield some surprising revelations of fact about periods in one's past. One such occurred to me tonight, tending my rather lazy meal of pizza in its journey from shrink-wrap to mouth via the oven. Al's recent demise still catches me out from time to time: the space he left bounded by forty plus years of friendship. But the thing that struck me tonight was just how much change was happening on a personal and social level in the very early years of our acquaintance. Between moving here from Birmingham in September 1980 and our buying our first proper house eighteen months later, all manner of things occurred that would chart the course of our lives to the present day. At around the time of our meeting Alan & Irene [
Read more