The world from the lone star state
image: mrp1001
I’ve been corresponding with a man in Houston, Texas who has formed the opinion that I am an apologist for slavery, England’s colonial past and live in an isolated bubble. That is my fault, I have given that impression somehow, though I’m not sure precisely how. My argument was that John Lee Hooker, along with other prominent black musicians, received a better mainstream reception in England in the early 1960s than in the US. Oh boy, that put the cat among the pigeons.
To those of you who know me, this is quite amusing. To any of my former students you might even find it strange but then ever was it so.
What intrigues and fascinates me is the fact that I can actually have a private dialogue with someone occupying a different world to me in a common setting. It is only by celebrating the diversity of each of us as individuals that the human race may move forward or be forever hamstrung by its collective past.
History is simultaneously fascinating and terrifying. Like the moment when you realise that you are no longer a child and that as a self electing adult you can influence the way that the pendulum swings in human affairs. This is a liberation and a responsibility. We are all responsible for our own actions, thoughts and deeds and free to act as we so choose.
In this context, happiness is the fruit of our endeavours. Its active proselytising is a useful thing on the part of any individual and I acknowledge anyone who by their life’s work seeks to spread enlightenment.
For the record, I don’t condone slavery, apartheid, colonialism, bigotry or any of those parasites upon the body politic of human affairs. However, I don’t bury my head in the sand either and pretend that they don’t exist. The true art to living a life is to not allow those things to take root in oneself, that is the real challenge.