In praise of detours

Detours are, I think, essential to life. The alternative is nose to the grindstone, eyes on the target and let nothing divert you from your fell purpose. But that's such a limiting view of life. Life, that is, in its fullness, and not just life boiled down to work. Certainly from experience it's the detours and diversions that often prove most illuminating and satisfying.

I remember, for example, hurtling through the Romanian countryside in a Trabant, sometime in the early 1990s. We were travelling to Bucharest airport. Part way, my host saw me looking at the mangled wreckage in a nearby field - "it's what's left of a salt mine" he said, "would you like to visit"? The next thing I remember is entering a decrepit elevator - which reminded me of the old lift shaft at London's Russell Square tube! Doors closed, lights extinguished, and we dropped a hundred feet. Terrifying. But when we exited it was in to a vast underground square-cut tomb of swirling paisley patterns. Everything - floor, walls, ceiling were salt (I tasted to check - yuk!) Our guide reckoned you could fit St Paul's Cathedral down there!

But there was yet more strangeness - rounding a corner we came across floodlit ranks of beds....during the Soviet era patients with bronchial complaints would stay to recuperate.
So all in all I'm with the Roman poet, Horace, "carpe diem" - seize the day, or as sometimes more elegantly put "pluck the day when it is ripe"! [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/carpe-diem.html]

Any reader detours welcomed! See you tomorrow

Detours

So what's with the title 'Detours of a rural Anglo Armenian educationalist'?



Apart from being wilfully obscure, and bearing in mind the limited words available for a title, I've tried to convey how I see my main interests; and aspects of my character that 'make me tick'. Over the next few days/blog entries I will reflect on each of the key words.


"Detours"........rather picks up on the American poet Robert Frost's famous poem, 'The Road Not Taken' http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html In which he writes:
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."


I guess in this blog I am keen to take that "road less traveled"........ burrowing through unfamiliar ground, nosing in to the semi-dark; because we are so busy these days that we rarely stop to think and reflect - what are we doing, why are we doing it, how are we doing, when should we do?? And that's what I'd like to do.........to pause on the journey - in your company - of course.



For what is a detour if undertaken alone?

Detour - the first

Well, the blog is titled 'detours' so - true to title - here is our first detour in to the rural fastness of the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire. On Sunday my wife (Linsey) and I headed for Kelmscott Manor http://www.kelmscottmanor.org.uk/ .

It was William Morris's nineteenth century family home; Morris was a pioneer in the field of design. To my surprise he bought the property on a joint lease with his friend and hero, Dante Gabriel Rossetti.......the surprise being that Rossetti conducted a long-term affair with Mrs Morris (Jane).......who was Rossetti's muse and features in many of his paintings and sketches:
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/rossetti/works/morris/janeburden.aspx

Unsurprisingly they seem to have inhabited Kelmscott on a 'time-share' basis.....not often meeting as a threesome! But I digress......or detour within a detour, even........

Kelmscott is one of those places that exudes peace and tranquility, even though it is relatively small and well visited (on the limited days it is open).

What struck me especially was Morris's ethos for life and living.....which resonates in the 21st century:

"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful".



See you tomorrow; comments and reactions welcomed



James

To begin at the beginning.......

"To begin at the beginning......."

Such a lovely turn of phrase.......but where does the quote come from? Think Welsh, and try "Bugger all" backwards; maybe think the late, great, actor Richard Burton!! Answers welcomed.

So what can you expect from this Blog? You can expect a reflection of your host/me (James).........Interaction, stimulation, conversation, concision, reflection, provocation, randomisation!

Let the games begin:
You can also expect discussion around current affairs, university/college education, the state of rural communities, travel and the arts....as well as detours, divergence, the arcane, eclectic and downright fascinating or perplexing.

Welcome to my world. Please share your own.