Jonah played me this the other day and I thought it was fab. Roger Davies sings about the area I am from and I know he articulates the feelings of many of us in his songs. I was born in Huddersfield, moved away when I was 18, came back ten years later and have been here ever since. Recently I've been thinking about moving away again - something to do with turning 50, getting restless and bored and making fresh starts etc. That may still happen - much will depend on what turns up after I finish my PhD (something I've started to think about recently). But now if I leave, it will be with a heart full of gratitude not because of ennui and I also know if ever I hear this song it will awaken strong emotions. I'm becoming more and more interested in using different media to represent my research and hearing this is helping me to understand why. The title of this post is also that of another RD song and says so, so much about class identity, the 'classing gaze' and recognition.
On a different tack - M. I wanted to respond to your comment but my emails come bouncing back.
What??? Again??
15 years ago
2 comments:
I really love Roger's voice...this is a wonderful (and especially inviting) tune! Thank you. I’m going to explore his music further. It must be special to have a song written about your hometown. I can’t say as there’s one written about mine. Even so, I do still love the place of my birth. Like you Yvonne, I left “home” at age 18 (and was at the time, very happy to go). I’ve never returned to stay, but I have visited 3 or 4 times every year, for many decades. My mom and a few other family members still live there. In fact, I’m visiting at the moment...have been for several weeks.
What I find most interesting about this post is your encounter with “getting restless and bored and making fresh starts, etc.” The idea of moving to a new place is intriguing, but only because the move would be made “with a heart full of gratitude...” I really like that. It suggests that you’ve “integrated” the experience of growing up, living in and being from that particular place, yet the place is not “all” that you are. Very cool...
BE WELL...M.
This comment is only remotely related to your post Yvonne, in that it is about “home” or more accurately, about some of my feelings with regards to my home (my country that is). I am a Canadian; born here and have always lived here.
Although I am happy to be Canadian (an identity that is often the envy of so many others), I cannot say that I am proud to be one. In a general sense, I’m not a patriotic nationalist, because I have real concerns about the drawbacks and divisiveness of creating and maintaining nation states. More specifically, I am saddened and feel much trepidation about how my fellow Canadians continue to behave vis-à-vis our environmental footprints.
As indicated in a recent survey (see link below), we Canadians (aside from our governments, businesses, etc.), that is as a collective of consumers; we Canadians are second to last on measures of being ‘Green’. Only our neighbours to the south (the USA) perform more feebly in this regard (of the 14 countries surveyed). Granted, surveys are not always accurate representations of realities, so I do take these results with a grain of salt. Yet in my anecdotal observations, Canadians talk the environmental talk, but we don’t walk it very well.
This is not to say that I don’t acknowledge the gifts inherent to being Canadian. In fact, there is so much to be very grateful for as a citizen of this magnificent country. However, it is these very gifts that (it seems to me) should be the foundational reasons for changing our destructive behaviours. If not because we are undeniably and inextricably part of the interconnected global web of life; then change is at least demanded so that we might keep safe that which we have been given (or should I say “taken”) stewardship over. Yes, people are slowly changing their ways. Yes, there is some improvement, but I wonder if it will turn out to be too little too late. A multitude of empirical and anecdotal evidence suggests that we Canadians (and millions upon millions of others) aren’t changing quickly enough! It seems as though Mother Earth can survive without our species, and if we keep this up, she might just shake us off her back like the vermin we’re turning out to be. Maybe it’s time we settlers in Canada (and elsewhere) adopt some of the traditions and practices of the Indigenous and First Nations peoples of the planet. I (for one) suspect that “they” have many of the answers to our woes.
There are only 35 million people in this vast country of ours and Canada has a third of the world’s potable fresh water supply...imagine...a third! Yet, our government refuses to support international resolutions (UN), aimed at treating water as a Commons. It seems to me that we Canadians should be leading the way where it concerns ensuring that access to water is a “right” for all living things (incl. ecosystems). Maude Barlow, a fellow Canadian is making this argument on a global scale (including at the UN), but she is not well recognized here at “home”.
So, it’s not so easy being Canadian (not one with ears, eyes and heart wide open). On the other hand, it behoves me to respectfully and humbly acknowledge the significant privileges I have, as compared to the substantial majority of the human population. There is a lot of ambiguity felt in this incongruence...having more than one could ever possibly need and mindlessly squandering it, especially while other people and life forms suffer so greatly. I wonder what “history” will say about us, and if there will even be anyone to read it?
http://press.nationalgeographic.com/pressroom/index.jsp?pageID=pressReleases_detail&siteID=1&cid=1210175010337
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