So this is Christmas, and what have you done?
....... this is probably a messy blog but bear with it .......
Another year nearly over.
Well this year as part of the western world we have managed to vote to
leave the EU and our American cousins have voted Donald Trump as the President
of the disUnited States of America.
Twice this year I have gone to bed thinking we’ll get a certain outcome
only to see that the next morning the opposite outcome has occurred. I do feel that both of these situations feel
very narrowing to me, it feels blinkered to think that we are stronger outside
the EU than as part of it. The EU for
all its faults did to me offer something other than just an Economic Area, it
also seemed to offer a common agenda around Human Rights and Fairness. Perhaps I’ve got rose tinted specs but I just
can’t see our Brexit alternative as being something that we benefit from in the
long run. I don’t buy ‘getting our
country back’.
I’ve not really done that much for the benefit of others
this year, it’s been quite a selfish year in some senses apart from looking
after Parents to some degree, as I have had to focus on navigating my BiPolar
to try and stay at work, which I have managed though with different degrees of
performance dependant on how the Mania, Anxiety and Mood have been. Its been a
relatively good end to the year though and I have been able to say that since
the end of October I have been on a good run where my mood has been good and
this has meant being able to deal with Mania and Anxiety when the waves
come.
So work wise there have been some hard yards with more to
come but I have enjoyed, almost, the last 2/3 months to some degree. My secondment is I think helping me to make a
contribution at the moment and seeing where that leads will be
interesting.
Creatively I have had a few real bursts of activity, often
during periods of Mania and also during a Greek holiday when the good lady was
in bed and I was left twiddling my thumbs, I wrote 30 new poems in Greece over
a week. I have also had the privilege
this year of writing 50th birthday odes for Neil Holmes, Teresa
Buckle and Alli Mac, I hope they were okay folks. I think I have found a degree of confidence as
a poet this year leading to 2 charitable outings as well as Capstock for
performing the poetry, with some nice feedback from those who took the time. We had a frustrating year with the punk band
Spewtum as we have struggled with getting a new drummer but friends pitched in
and I think our Capstock performance was a step up from my miserable frontman
job I did the prior year. The Spewtum
originals still seem to go down well.
On reflection, I think, if confidence doesn’t desert me, I
would like to give more back in 2017. In
2016 I have tried to informally help people at my work with mental health
problems and I want to do more of that as I think there are an army of needs
here especially in big organisations where the organisation can seem faceless,
it may not want to be, but people perhaps struggling under the radar. We have a really good team of folks who
informally support Wellbeing and also filter people into the organisations
Employee Assistance Programme as well as trying to provide practical support
when they can. I think that’s the key
thing that I want to do, foster more of a sense of community as I feel that in
recent years we have once again ended up with a ‘Looking after Number 1’ type
culture and even though, with mental health there is an element of that needed
there is no reason why we can’t share our experiences and make some sort of
difference. I’ve also tried to provide
Homewatch support where I live though people don’t really engage with it that
well, Its one of those unthanked tasks to some degree, that isn’t a problem but
as I’m in contact with my neighbours I want to encourage them to keep a wider
lookout locally socially in the neighbourhood.
Even though work has had some hard yards, I have been able
to contribute to the Agile community within the organisation and have felt that
this has been well received.
Another thing that has been highlighted for me this year,
2016, is the plight of the refugee, there have been absolute humanitarian needs
for countries to take in refugess who are fleeing from fighting and persecution
in 2016 yet the nationalistic rhetoric has been at odds with that across the
globe. Even in Germany who have taken in
1 million in 2016, there has been a hardening against that in recent weeks and
not least in recent days because of the awful Berlin events. Is there a challenge here for us all, to
retain our humanity when these events are upon us and still want to help those
in trouble. I know the mantra comes out ‘charity
begins at home’ but surely our home countries are ultimately a fortunate
accident of birth for many of us that deliver us the freedoms that we have.
Peace to you all this Christmas ………………
Tony
