transformation

2008: Pemberton? And Beyond?

It was a coin toss, effectively. I chose just as randomly, as throughout the tour – some good ones, some bad ones, some very bad ones. My days of building spreadsheets with weighted pros and cons had disappeared in 2001 with the advent of the Landmark Forum into my life. The power of choosing without reason, of being unreasonable, was then mine.

Pemberton it was. The Important Bird Area of Sandy Island and its fairy terns would have to await my next visit, not that I knew it existed back in 2008. Instead my Lonely Planet recommended more…

Objections, M’Lud. Overruled!

This blog has already hinted at how birding could have meaning. It has also drawn the analogy that monitoring birds is no more than a pilot does by keeping his eye on the altimeter. In terms that are more familiar few of us drive a car without a working fuel gauge, which tells us how many resources remain before we grind to a halt.

So, why worry about resources in the natural world? Won’t science come to our rescue? That’s like not worrying about a bank balance and expecting the bailout of an overdraft, loan or credit card. In nature’s case a loan from future generations as has been pointed out in the parallel with more…

Travel

Actually I was having a good time in Western Australia. Travel is just as much about experiencing differences but, being human, we present them as: our way, right; their way, wrong. The whingeing (apart from the one about noisy bastards) should all go down with a pinch of salt. Or sugar. There is an enjoyment to be had from self-righteousness.

Sure, when travelling, bad stuff does happen, exacerbated by the absence of familiar support systems. As I type this, more…

Thank You Anyway, Prize Cow

A story whose meaning keeps coming back to me. My prize cow was a career in computer programming, which I killed in 2002. I’ve been working its old patch of dirt any number of ways since without making a bean but without the old depression and downright urge to kill myself. So, that’s [...]

Pascal's Wager, Again

The biggest game on the planet gets another airing in the New York Times. Poker legend, Amarillo Slim, once said, “If there’s anything worth arguing about, I’ll either bet on it or shut up.” We’re certainly arguing about environmental degradation. Perhaps the do-nothing brigade could accept that they’ve already gambled with their children’s lives and [...]

Publish and Be Damned

To a learning-to-speak two-year-old my father must have seemed like the Iron Duke. I chose to shut up. (Today’s dads, please note.) And I shut up for fifty years – all my choice. How could my father have foreseen that? He wasn’t used to being a parent.

Half a century of fearing a hostile hearing and so just listening to everyone else. And, boy, does everyone else go on? more…

A Meaning for Bird Conservation, Redux

Life has no meaning. Try that on. There is no purpose.

What do we do with that thought? What do we do without it? Both the same: we hand over the choice of meaning to others: to religion; to politicians; to leaders in general; to what society wants; or to our culture. The responsibility of choosing for ourselves is too great. Our condemnation to be free sends us scurrying back to the chains.

But what if you actually do choose, authentically, for yourself? more…

Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part II

Philosopher

This blog is a gift. Way back in 2002 I entered the Landmark Communication Curriculum to “get my ideas and thoughts out into the world.” I came away still with that intention, among a few unexpected others – the joy of the work – but no realistic way of delivering. It has simmered on the back-burner ever since. I can’t even say that trying to be a novel writer has satisfied the urge.

And now, this. OK, so no-one’s reading the blog more…

A Somerset & Bristol Birder Travels the World

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