The End of a Road

I'll start today on a personal note, it's the last day of work till September. Not surprisingly teachers across the country will be celebrating the end of term. However this seems a much more personal landmark, 35 years ago I started off my life as a history teacher. History is still as fascinating, but yesterday afternoon I taught my last history lesson. A strange feeling to know that I may never again explain the pros and cons of the open field system as opposed to enclosure.

From September I become a part-time teacher of Politics, the interest that motivated me to switch direction and embrace history is still there. The driving to establish a link between the past and the present, but as Marx said the purpose is not simply to interpret the world, but to change it, and therefore as I've known for many years Politics is where I'm best suited.

The news story that has made me reflect since I read it at the weekend, as the horrific fact that the last female white rhino was killed in the Kruger National Party in S.Africa. The desire for quick wealth has led to the massacre of rhinos for their ivory tusk. In killing the last female, the poachers are of course destroying the source of future revenue. In a twisted way this is little different from trawlermen who overfish to the point of destroying stocks. How little humans have learned, it is remarkably depressing.

Culturally I have returned to an area of interest over the past few days- the American South. BBC4 which is at times an outstanding channel featured a documentary beautifully entitled " The Dirty South"( copyright DBT) that compared the South of Gone with the Wind with the gritty reality of Tennessee Williams and beyond. Truly absorbing. Tacked on was a biography of Hank Williams. Now Hank was the original live fast, die young American singer. He died before I was born, yet his music has been the inspiration of many of my favourite singer-songwriters.

Being the last day of work , my thoughts are turning towards the holiday and my hope to catch up on some reading I've postponed over the past few weeks, however before that I must put the final touches to a speech. The wedding of my daughter this coming Saturday, brings with it the responsibility of addressing the assembled, as Father of the Bride. While the preparations for a day increase in intensity, I'm felt thinking about the past 30 plus years since Caroline was born. Perhaps that's what's fascinating about life, it affords us these moments that as we look forward, we inevitably review the past.