Heights, Hearts & Hollows

Day 8 (Thursday 8th December 2016)

8th adjournment, on 9th November 2016, of the trial of Al-Saadi Qaddafi,
3rd son of the former Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi. Al-Saadi, a former football player,
and commander of Libya's Special Forces for his father's regime during the Libyan Civil War,
was arrested in Niger and extradited to Libya in March 2014. He is being held (and allegedly tortured)
in Habda Prison. The charges against him murder of the former team coach,
Bashir Al-Rayani, war crimes, false imprisonment and drinking alcohol.

I am always interested to see what writers come up with in response to the Advent Blog theme and Sandy Wilkie has not disappointed. Sandy started out in IT and moved into HR where he could use his analytical skills. After time at Standard Life and then at the University of Saint Andrews (his alma mater where he had attained a first class degree in Geographical Studies), he changed sector to work in organisational development for the NHS in Dumfries (a town where I spent many weeks per annum in my youth). Sandy took some time away from organisational life and found love. He has moved South and returned to working within the NHS - he is now the Staff Engagement Lead at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, where he works with staff at all levels from Directors to people on the wards and in the broader community. He knows that by improving the quality of the staff experience it is possible to strengthen the patient experience. At work Sandy focuses on workplace culture, organisational values, communication an effective leadership.  Communication comes naturally to Sandy - he is highly creative and a talented wordsmith - a keen observer of the world around him. 

Outside work and creative writing, Sandy is a follower of Partick Thistle - a football club with a rich history and friendly fans. He also has a passion for land and landscapes (as demonstrated in some of his previous Advent Blog posts). As the following post shows, he also has a penchant for music.

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Heights, Hearts & Hollows  

After the 2015 'Comet Tails and Coal Dust' series of blogs, our host Kate decided to make it even more challenging with her chosen theme for 2016. So 'Heights, Hearts & Hollows' was ostensibly about a world in flux. But I couldn't even begin to address Brexit, Trump or the loss of the original Toblerone shape, so I sought solace in music. 

Three tracks which echo the theme. Three tracks which are loosely connected in time around a 4 year period covering the Millennium, but then take us into 2016. Three tracks which speak to me of flux, optimism, anger & hope. It's time to get out my musical soap box...

'Heights' (1997)

Our story begins in May 1997, when Tony Blair sweeps to power after 18 years of Tory rule.  And in the same month, that word-Meister Paddy McAloon released his album 'Andromeda Heights' with Prefab Sprout. The title track from the album includes lyrics which reflect that sense of optimism about the future:

"We're building a home on the side of a mountainAbove the clouds, next to the skyOur plans are ambitious, a blueprint of wishesThat will come true and when they do"

I still remember the beautiful Spring sunshine on the Edinburgh streets that greeted the Labour victory that Friday morning; there was a real sense of relief & optimism for our country. We had collectively ascended the heights.

Tony Blair campaigning 1997

But that optimism disintegrated when Blair decided to join President Bush in the Iraq War. They couldn't find those weapons of mass destruction, so attempted to justify the reason for invasion (in hindsight) on humanitarian grounds. It felt a bit desperate. It was a moment when politics lost its authenticity and David Kelly lost his life in the woods on Harrowdown Hill, Oxfordshire. I still feel anger to this day.*

So do Heights come before a Hollow? Or are there hearts to be found, scattered around?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za_WgkRtoG0&sns=em

'Hearts' (1999)

Two years after 1997, the Beta Band, follow-up their critically acclaimed 3 EPs with a somewhat overblown but creative eponymous debut album. It may not have been a perfect record, but it contained a true gem in the form of a 10 minute track called 'The Hard One'. The wonderful Steve Mason can be heard singing a sample from 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' by Bonnie Tyler:

"Once upon a time I was falling apart, now I'm always falling in loveOnce upon a time I was falling apart, now I'm always falling in love, in love"

In amongst the creative mayhem and general eccentricities of the Beta Band, was an incongruous reference to an 1983 Jim Steinman track sung by a power-balled singer from South Wales. And a true coal miners daughter at that. 

From coal dust to hearts, from the blackness of politics to the true hope provided by love. On the cusp of the Millennium, would love in our hearts conquer all; even the sense of betrayal by Blair that was to follow? And can it still today?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQinr76Hick&sns=em

'Hollows' (2001)

Steve Mason was later to record a track called 'Oh My Lord' on his 2013 album, Monkey Minds in the Devil's Time. But Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds did a track with the same title back in 2001. This earlier song contains the lyrics 

"The ladders of life that we scale merrilyMove mysteriously aroundSo that when you think you're climbing up, manIn fact you're climbing downInto the hollows of glamour, where with spikes and hammerWith telescopic camera, they chose to turn the screw"

Nick & Susie Cave had twin boys in 2000, Arthur & Earl. Such lovely innocence at the start of a new Millennium. Yet I don't think anyone can better understand the hollows of despair than parents who lose a child. 

On 14th July 2015, Arthur died in an accident; he fell off the cliff in Ovingdean, near his home in Brighton. I might have felt hollow when Trump won in America, or when the Brexit referendum result was announced. But nothing can possibly compare to the impact of Arthur's death on his parents. That is Hollow. That is the bottom of the pit. That is fucking despair.** Truly.

Flowers left in tribute on the cliff-top where Arthur Cave fell to his death

The harrowing documentary 'Once More With Feeling' (2016) follows Nick Cave and his band recording their latest album Skeleton Tree before, during and after the tragic death of his son. In the film, Nick is bereft; he can hardly recognise himself or sing as he did before. His friend Warren Ellis keeps him going with some friendly cajoling. You see, Warren has a real heart.

It's simply the most powerful documentary I have ever seen. Grief almost tears the recording sessions apart. And yet, in the final two  tracks of the album, Nick Cave talks about the sun rising and everything being alright now. Out of the hollow comes hope. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xCVgsI5h9p0

Coda

So there we have Heights, Hearts and Hollows captured through music; at moments in time: 1997, 1999, 2001/16. But actually it could be any sequence in time. Heights can crash to Hollows. Those Hollows can generate renewal again. And perhaps our human Heart keeps the candle of hope burning strong.

Make a difference this Christmas, show your heart to those that you love. Keep them close, keep them safe, let them see you care.

* I apologise for the anger

** I am sorry for the swearing 

Living the T-shirt

Day 7 (Wednesday 7th December 2016)

7 young adults graduated from High School in Iowa -

they are the world's first surviving set of septuplets and the first 

to reach maturity, the McCaugheys. Born on 19th November 1997,

the 4 boys (Kenneth Jr. Brandon, Natahn and Joel) and 3 girls

(Alexis, Natalie and Kelsey) were born at 31 weeks, 

weighing between 2 lbs 5 oz. and 3 lbs 4 oz.

Picture by Rachel Mummy, The Registrar

Today's piece is contributed by Gavan Burdan, the Managing Director of Burden Dare - an executive search and interim management business. You can reach him on Twitter via @burdendare. Gavan lives in Sevenoaks and is a passionate supporter of the local cricket team, Sevenoaks Vine CC, where he chairs the Management Committee and, when asked, still plays for the Old Vines (the Club's over 40's team). He cares about society and the people in it - he is a mentor supporting individuals down on their luck in London (but more of that to follow). Gavan commenced his career in Retail Banking (we are both Lloyds alumni - although not there at the same time). He transferred into consulting and has not looked back.

Gavan's piece is in some ways a tough read. It is for those who have a moral conscience and a realistic outlook. I find it interesting that this is one of a number of posts in the Advent Blog series this year that touches on society, our awareness of others, ethics and making the world better by understanding and being there for others. Gavan is one of those who has been prepared to put himself out, but it is clear that he gains and learns, as do those he interacts with. He is an all-round good egg (and a devoted dad to boot).

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Living the T-shirt 

I’ve lost count of the number of business courses I’ve been on: NLP’s folded arms, Myers Briggs’ types, Kübler-Ross’ denial, Johari’s double glazing, Hetrzberg’s Jelly Beans, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – I’ve got all the T shirts!

This year I learned how they work in the cold, hard, real world that you and I live in.

I joined a private members club with a conscience in central London; it has a mission to break the cycle of homelessness by means of an employment academy that provides basic skills training to help get homeless people back into sustainable employment.

The Academy team are simply awesome, to a person; they regularly win awards and depend on the club for income.

You should join up.

The people they help don’t have even bread, but they want to be JAMS; they always need mentors to “just be there” for their graduates - I’ve now had two mentees.

The first was a young guy, disowned by his family, no job, no prospects, no real home and no real hope. After graduation, which is a truly magical ceremony sprinkling stardust over the really disadvantaged, he found a part-time job. For him, this was the first step back on the ladder back to our world, and then Christmas came along – always a hard time for those on the breadline – and I never saw or heard from him again; I felt hollow, I can’t really imagine how he felt. I don’t know where he is now, but I heard he is alive.

My second mentee was born in the UK and moved to the USA when 3 months old; he’s 34 now and was deported a year ago back to the UK, it doesn’t matter why but he knows he messed up.  He arrived with a T shirt, a pair of “pants”, trainers with no laces and a spine held together by tungsten plates. He was sent to live in a rat infested dilapidated house in Croydon and immediately received an eviction notice, at the same time as Universal Credit cut his benefits. I’d never seen anyone look so disengaged and sound so desperate. So alone, in a world he neither knew nor understood.

He could only afford to eat one 69p Iceland pizza a day.

For three months he talked, he denied, he got depressed, I listened, and Johari’s window began to open; his arms unfolded, we drank fruit juice and he ate beans and fruit, he smiled, he was bargaining; it became crystal clear that he needed to sleep without fearing eviction, to wake up without wet lips and wondering why?

We got him moved into a social housing enterprise in Kentish Town, a room of his own, with a key, in a big house with others. For the first time in 5 years he slept all night. Maslow clapped.

We sat side by side at a benefits tribunal, with a judge judging and a doctor interrogating him. He was passionate, he doesn’t want benefits or pizza. He wants help. We got it.

A few weeks later he got a part time job at Old Spike Roastery (you should buy your coffee there), an agonising trip across London that torments his spine– but he wants to do it, you see he wants to be like you and me; he’s jumped and grabbed Hertzberg’s Jelly Beans, now he wants JAM. He has a big heart.

He sends me texts every day, he keeps thanking me (what have I done...all I did was be there, and say what I thought - you could do that too), he does the hard yards; he keeps checking, we keep talking, now he listens, he’s full of ideas, he has dreams – and he thinks he could probably work a full week.

He’s accepted his lot. Next year he may even be accepted. Some high!

Happy Christmas Dr Kübler-Ross.

Lest we forget

Day 6 (Tuesday 6th December 2016)

6 number one hits - Bon Jovi proved their enduring ability to 

entertain when their latest album "This House Is Not For Sale"

(the Group's 13th studio album, released November 4th 2016) reached

top spot on the Billboard 200. The band were formed in 1983 and play 

Hard, Pop and Arena Rock and Glam Metal.

Today's piece is a sober read from Alan Gilmour, which touches on one of humanity's hollows. It puts many things in perspective and it certainly made me think. Alan's writing does that. Alan has a day job as Head of Acquisition and Retention for the Police Mutual, but since he last contributed to the Advent Series he has taken up a not-for-profit Non-executive Directorship with BCRS Business Loans - an organisation that provides money for SMEs who struggle to access funds through traditional banking channels. 

Alan is a delightful and broad thinker - he studied Chinese History at Glasgow, long before China had risen to its position of global prominence and has an MBA from Aston. I am one of many who enjoy Alan's company, debate and engaging/thought-provoking opinions. You can follow Alan on Twitter (his handle is @alan_gilmour) or read his (sporadic) personal blogging.

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Lest we forget  

So what moved me in 2016?

An interesting question for a dour Scot. As a race we are not easily moved. Life is easier that way.

But this year while idly gazing at a board which listed the Head Boys at a local school, I noticed something that achieved this rare feat.

For on the list was one K.R. Owen, Head Boy in 1913.

I know nothing of this individual or his family or his circumstances.

Maybe I should.

But what caught my eye was the next board. A list of all those who gave their lives in the Great War.

And there was the name, K.R.Owen, again. Killed in action in 1916.

In the space of 3 years this boy had grown into a man and become a memory.

Tragic.

A member of the Army Chaplains' Department (AChD) tending
a soldier's grave during the Battle of the Somme, July 1916. © IWM 

Every day I, like many others in business, spend time poring over numbers and spreadsheets and PowerPoint decks with statistics, charts and graphs.

Every day we obsess about sales, income, costs, FTEs, profit, capital, assets, liabilities, and many more numbers. These are the heartbeat of business.

School boys being taught about Zeppelins 1916

But as we say goodbye to 2016, a year that remembered that the 100^th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, here are the numbers that really matter.

Numbers that should give us a real sense of perspective.

141 days. 420,000 British casualties. 127,000 British dead, 19,000 on day one alone.

Plus many more hundreds of thousands German, French and British Commonwealth casualties.

And if we include the families, millions of people seriously impacted by the events of those 141 days on the Somme.

Like a ripple across a pond.

Numbers like these make you think. They bring it all home.

And should make us think when we obsess about the numbers that govern our daily business life.

For our numbers are not a matter of life and death.

They do not amount to a hill of beans.

We may think they are important but when stacked up against the numbers of 1916 and the lives of the many, many K.R. Owens, are they really?

For they come to nought when stacked up against the lives lost, lives ruined, by the events of 1916.

It is all too easy for the anonymised count of the slaughter to obliterate the human cost for war. Any war.

It did for me as a historian. I deal in facts and figures and dates. Not people.


Until I saw the name of K R Owen. Twice.

The numbers that I deal in are unlikely be remembered by the end of January 2017, never mind recorded and remembered and commemorated 100 years hence.

Unlike K. R. Owen and his ilk.

Who went from boy to man to a memory on a board in 3 years.

He may not even have been involved in the Somme.

But that doesn’t matter. That is not the point.

It was potential lost. Brilliance snuffed out. A tragic loss.

And that is my abiding memory of 2016.

A memory that has humbled me.

The lesson I have learnt.

Christmas 1916 on the Somme Front, painting W.B. Wollen

Our numbers may be good. They may be bad. Even indifferent.

They might please or disappoint our bosses.

But we still get to go home every night, limbs and minds intact.

Unlike K.R Owen.

Ensuring that I go into 2017 with a more acute sense of what matters and what doesn’t. More acute than ever before.

Thanks to K.R. Owen and the memories from the Somme.

Lest we forget.