Times and places
What are we aiming for?…
Hello friends,
A super short one this week.
Following on from last weeks blog, I See You Tree Climber, I happened to come across an extraordinary woman in The Virago Book of Women Travellers (check out that pipe!). She captured my imagination catapulting my suggestion to explore childhood loves and dreams to another level.
Meet Emily Hahn 1905-1997. Author (amongst other things) of 57 books, including Times and Places, a memoir consisting of 23 articles she wrote for The New Yorker between 1937 and 1970. This excerpt is from the chapter entitled The Big Smoke:
“Though I had always wanted to be an opium addict, I can’t claim that as the reason I went to China. The opium ambition dates back to that obscure period of childhood when I wanted to be a lot of other things, too – the greatest expert on ghosts, the world’s best ice skater, the champion lion tamer, you know the kind of thing. But by the time I went to China, all that was forgotten…”.
Wow, that’s some imagination. Opium addict! As a child I had no idea of such things, my first real encounter with drugs being the heady smell and haze of a cannabis cloud hanging over the crowd at a Rolling Stones concert (the Tattoo You tour if I remember rightly) at Wembley Stadium in c1981. Me and a bunch of school friends got the train from North Devon to London, armed with our hard earned cash from our part time supermarket jobs, our packed lunches and our wide-eyed stares. No wonder she, not I, became a journalist, biographer, novelist, feminist, traveller.
But back to today.
Both sides now
I spent this weekend with five friends in Palma, Mallorca, welcoming in the lovely Claire’s 1000Weeks (previously known as a 60th birthday celebration ;-)). A privilege of friendship, a beautiful location, fun, love, laughter and time. With some excellent cycling, food and wine thrown into the mix.
A wonderful memory making combination that will make me smile for years to come.
Yet all of this happiness was juxtaposed with a heavy dose of reality. Another dear friend is having major surgery today to oust that indiscriminate disease, cancer. A brutal reminder of Joni Mitchell’s 1969 classic, ‘I’ve looked at life from both sides now’.
We all know time doesn’t stand still, so why do we dither, putting off things for another day? What are we waiting for? What are we expecting to change before we do the thing?
My question to you, what are you putting off, waiting for perfect? Do drop me a line, I’d love to hear from you.
Until next week,
Ruth x
Keep those dreams alive,.....well maybe not the opium addict if we are trying to exceed our 1000 weeks!
Emily Hahn sounds like a badass! Thanks for introducing me to some new rabbit holes to fall down.
I remember as a kid I was convinced you could have a different job every day of the week. I dreamt of being an author on Mondays, a journalist on Tuesdays and a hairdresser on the weekends. Maybe I was a pioneer multi-hyphen-er? 😂 Who knows how I ended up in marketing anyway!