Living with nature 2

When I first arrived here I posted about the extraordinary way in which the weather and the sea affects everything, and the longer I'm here, the more evident that is.

I was impressed by how clean people keep their cars, often washing them twice a week, until I realised why. If you don't, your car will simply rot away from the salt.

I need to sweep my little paved terrace regularly as the crunching sound underfoot (salt) will be brought into the house. 

My dog, when she was first here, drank so much water she needed to go out about every half hour, it was salt in the air causing her thirst.

When the weather is good, it's magnificent, but when the wind blows, boy, does it blow, and straight in from the North Sea. Local fishermen tell me in the summer, the winds are mostly south westerly and much kinder.

I was recently without my car and needed to walk everywhere and my route is along the shore to the next town. I've begun to notice the different waves, their patterns and colours. Sometimes they're very green, and they're the powerful ones, dragging seaweed through them causing the green colour. 

I have begun to understand why we should treat the sea with such respect. Quite apart from its incredible strength which both my dog and I experienced recently as she was paddling and an unpredictable strong wave knocked her off her feet and I had to wade in to rescue her from being dragged off. It's seeing what washes up after particularly high tides - plastic, and lots of it. People here organise beach cleans regularly but close to the harbour next to the boat slipways, it's really evident. Our rubbish is deadly to sea life and we need to stop polluting our seas.

One morning I was treated to a very sweet, lone, basking seal in the harbour below. So beautiful, and serene.

The weather can be fierce, yet in contrast, the people are gentle and kind. I'm amazed at the lengths complete strangers have gone to to help me out with things. I realise that I hadn't really experienced that level of community before I came here. No-one looks for anything in return, it's just how they are.

I'm getting used to it being broad daylight at 11.00pm and know I must make the most of it as the winters are very dark. When the sun shines, people go out, all else can wait, there will be plenty of time in the winter to be indoors. 

Living with nature

Having recently moved to the North East coast of Scotland, quite close to the sea, I have become fascinated by how different life is here from a town in a semi-rural English Shire. In these coastal towns and villages, one of the most striking features is how people have to adapt to nature, and not in a superficial way, but in every aspect of life.

The sheer power of the sea and the wind here affects everything, from the way the houses are designed and shaped to the limited variety of plant life that will survive. The magnificence of the coastal hills and rocky formations is breathtaking with groups of cottages huddled together and folded into the hem of the land before it frays into the sea.

The sea here is the source of much employment and I'm lucky to live near the working port of Macduff, where boats of all shapes and sizes come and go, many having work done on them by very skilled people. 

"Macduff (Gaelic An Dùn) is a town in the Banff and Buchan area Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is situated on Banff Bay and faces the town of Banff across the estuary of the River Deveron. Macduff is a former burghand is now the only place in the United Kingdom where deep-water wooden fishing boats are still built.^{[3]"  - Wikipeadia} 

I love looking at the boats in port, they fascinate me with their unyealding hard shells, though, I wouldn't relish travelling on them or the only thing I'd see is last night dinner.

There's no point trying to fight nature here, you'll lose. What captivates me is how this community respects the sea and the weather that the fierce North winter winds bring with it. The locals are unnervingly cheerful, smile a lot and most things are 'nae bother' and believe me, when your electrics are decidedly dodgy and your worried face betrays your fear of a total rewire and your electrician says 'nae bother' - those are the two words you want most to hear.

Then there are the stunning sandy beaches, and the huge skies which a dear friend recently commented on by suggesting that this part of the world clearly has more than 360 degrees - the skies are so vast.

I'm off now to learn more about 'shelter belts' - used to protect plants when designing a garden - so I can transform my grey patch to something that has at least something growing in it that stands a chance of survival. 

Inspirational Stoke Stories

It was my privilege to have been asked to run workshops yesterday at the Stoke Stories event which was a beautifully organised day full of inspiration, laughter and terrific ideas.

One of the workshops I facilitated was on Business Start-ups ,and there was a great mix of people in the room, some very experienced in support in the City and others who are just starting out.

What was very clear from the workshop session where people, in small groups, were talking and noting all their ideas for what could be provided for business start-ups, was that there was a shared vision for what support should look like.

Given that our business economy is in a very precarious state nationally, not just locally, it is imperative that we firmly grasp the desire to build upon the ideas and passion we have in our city, nurture it and help it grow.

The people who are starting new businesses are the economic future of our areas, what could be more important than helping them grow and develop? It's not about providing something that will look good in a brochure or have a modern air conditioned building, it's about joining together - each of us approaching someone we know who cares and asking them if they can share their knowledge and skills.

It's about being positive, in thought, word and deed. It's about saying what we really feel and think (in a good and positive way) paying attention to what is going on around us in our towns, cities and streets. It's about listening - I mean really listening, not 'engaging', not 'consulting' - listening.

In the five years I have been lucky enough to have been involved in supporting people starting businesses and working for themselves I have rarely heard anyone say they were doing it because they wanted to become rich or powerful, they were were doing it mostly for two fundamental reasons; to take back control of their working life and be independent of employers and because they were passionate about what they wanted to do.

New start-ups don't want the earth, and providing them with what they need doesn't carry a huge and unaffordable price tag. We already have, within our city, all the resources we need to do this and do it well.

What I believe we first have to do is - Start Thinking Differently!

Keep it simple and start connecting all the people and places which could be resources. These could be given an overarching name - anything - so that people would know that this person or place will assist them. We could gather companies, organisations and people who will offer time and expertise, share knowledge and skills, mentor, support and develop the new business people. Each giving according to what they are able, this might be a little, it might be a lot, it doesn't matter, it's the giving that counts.

We are collectively responsible for what happens next in our society, never has this been clearer, the big question is - will we rise to challenge? Will we add to the positive change? Will we grasp this opportunity to make a difference? I do hope so.

I want to thank everyone I met yesterday, they were an inspiration, and the challenge that the Business Start-up workshop group set - which was; for each of us to contact one other person in the room who we hadn't met before and speak with them and share something during the next two weeks, is one which I relish and will certainly carry out, it will be my pleasure.

Opening the door

Today, I had the enormous privilege of helping someone get online for the very first time. I have been working with this lady for a number of weeks now, getting her familiar with basic computing, but today was special - she was able to create her email account and send some messages.

Quite apart from the sheer joy she exhibited when she realised she could do this, it was the speed with which she suddenly reeled off all the things she would now be able to do which she couldn't before. She began pulling letters from her bag and asking "can I email these, and these?", "yes" I answered, "you can email them all"

This lady is on a very limited income, with four children to support, alone. She has a pay-as-you-go mobile but finds it so expensive when phoning essential services, and as we know, they like to keep us hanging on.

Being able to email will open the door to so many opportunities for her, she will no doubt find it will make a real difference to her daily life.

Next week we start on the Internet and basic searches, I can't wait. Today I saw very clearly for the first time, just what I, and many others, now take for granted - the ability to communicate online. I don't think I will again. Thank you Julie, I learnt a lot today too.

The big divide - Networks and Isolation

I've been meaning to write this for some time now and was prompted by last weeks Apprentice on BBC and my accompanied Twitter feed.
There has been much discussion and speculation about the plentiful and growing social networks and their 'effect' on individuals and their abilities to share and connect in person outside of these networks.
Some make quite frightening reading claiming that digital social interaction can detach people, one particular book mentioned in this article states they can make people 'less human'.

Well, as my old mum would have said "everything in moderation"

It's probably true that if someone had little or no direct human contact and their only means of communication was digital, there probably would be some sort of clinical detachment, but that's not what these networks represent for the majority of people. As well as being fun and informative, they can be lifelines.
The TV series I mentioned regularly attracts many Twitter users to become quite vocal, and in many cases hilariously funny; in entertainment value alone, it's worth every moment, however, on a more serious note, for those sitting and watching alone, it's a way of feeling like you're surrounded by an extended family - better- it's a family you have chosen.

I think it's often underestimated just how important connection to others really is, and for many people, come Friday night, they may speak to no-one until work comes around again on Monday. Yes, we all happily assume that 'everyone' has networks of family and friends that we meet and go out with in our social hours, but that's not true for a lot of people. Those same people don't want to be identified as a 'billy no-mates' because what does that say about them? It might reflect on how others view them. Instead, they go home and fabricate a social life, maybe join the ever increasing numbers accessing dating sites when all they really want is a friend - someone to talk to, have a joke with or simply share a thought or opinion with.

Then there are those whose isolation is even greater; unemployment will quickly isolate even the most competent and connected of people; those with physical or psychological problems; or simply being older and infirm.

Call it by all the long names we like, there's another name for the impact of isolation, one which sums up the result - loneliness.

Many lonely people have become the pariahs of our society - outcasts; at least that's how many of them see themselves. To them if feels as if no-one cares, that no-one notices them or wants to know them, they're often struggling with other issues that their situation brings like financial insecurity, fear of the future, mental ill health which so often follows the isolated. They are sometimes shunned by the active, connected folk and this simply drives them further into their isolation. However, through developing social networks, they can become meaningful again. The RSA wrote about social networks being the key to breaking the link between social isolation and unemployment and I think we can include in this the digital connections that can free many of their individual loneliness and isolation.

I'm aware that much of this has been said before and probably better, but I was prompted to write it when I noticed a number of people complaining on Twitter about people tweeting comments on the TV programme. To the complainers I would ask just a little tolerance, some of those people might actually need to enjoy this in the company of others, and the company of others may only, for them, come in digital form; please be tolerant.

To the young - with love

The job of the young is to believe that everything they do, and everything they think and create is new. They should do this with vigour and without fear. All that is good and just how it should be.

When older people listen and comment on the young, sometimes it is with a degree of scepticism, their raised eyebrows often resulting in the young becoming frustrated, irritated and, on occasion, inspiring a tenacious desire to prove the older folk wrong.

There is little in the world that is new, when I was in the young group I simply wouldn't believe that, I believed that my thinking was unique and that I could change the world, I took it by it's shoulders and shook it for all I was worth, my passion for change sometimes scared others (sometimes still does, but that's another story) yet remained the most important challenge.

However, this generation really is different, they do have something which is new, which has never existed before and offers almost limitless potential, it is, of course, the World Wide Web and the Internet.
What happens from here is what will, for future generations bring about the New World; essentially it changes everything.

How the young will use  all the new technology, information sharing and extraordinary tools freely available will determine the degree of sustainable change that they will develop.

Getting back to the ages though, and being very firmly in the older age group I would encourage the young, in whose hands all this wonderful new stuff mainly is, to talk to the older age groups. Whilst the technology may be new, people are not. It would be the most terrible disaster if, with all the opportunities now available we simply re-create the past, but in a shape-shifting kind of way. To the young, I would like to say this;

Try to avoid making too many rules - for each rule, you eliminate some people.

Think clearly and carefully about whether to exploit the commercial potential of each  new development - where there is cost, you eliminate some more people. With value, you attract some people.

Consider whether what is being created is just another version of something which previously existed, but in another form - for each re-hashed old idea, you eliminate some people (remember, people don't change and often have long and accurate memories), many people want new, if new means better, and if better means for all, and a tangible better too.

Try not to get too caught up in 'jargon heirarchy' - "He/she who knows the latest jargon knows more." This is a time wasting pointless game to play, you never win - someone else always knows more, and you eliminate some people.

You have the most extraordinary opportunity now, to bring whole groups and communities together, to share, educate yourselves and others, to develop, create, have fun and grow. We, older group may not always know what you're talking about, we sometimes get a bit lost in all the new developments, but bear with us. What we do have is many years of knowledge and information which you just might find useful, and we do 'get it', eventually and with gentle coaching. Remember, you too will be the older group one day, and hopefully will see the positive impact of what you made, there will be lessons too, and yes, probably the odd raised eyebrow when you listen to someone and know that you have seen this before. You will remember, and laugh to yourself; it's a milestone.

This is what's so wonderful about change and the ageing generations, we have so much to offer each other, and this generation has the real diamond, something truly new to the World and people who, whether they understand it all or not, would like to offer their contribution. The wise young will take that opportunity, and we will embrace it - with love.