"I tend as I get older to want to matter a lot. I want the fact I existed to matter."
"Commitment is something that truly makes your life worthwhile."
On Saturday night I watched a tribute evening to celebrate Harry Chapin's 45th birthday. The evening was at Carnegie Hall in New York and featured some of music's great artists including Judy Collins, Pat Benetar, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen and many more.
The main person was missing because Harry Chapin died at the age of 38 in a road accident. The concert took place in 1987. Today Harry Chapin would be 81 and that just doesn't seem possible. For me he has, like so many people who die young, been frozen in time, forever young.
In his song "There Only Was One Choice" Chapin talks about his aging on the following words:
"When I started this song I was still 33
The age that Mozart died and sweet Jesus was set free
Keats and Shelley too soon finished, Charley Parker would be
And I fantasized some tragedy'd be soon curtailing me
Well just today I had my birthday—I made it 34
Mere mortal—not immortal—not star-crossed anymore
I've got this problem with my aging I no longer can ignore
A tame and toothless tabby can't produce a lion's roar."
I wonder what he would have thought about being over 80?
Some people read self help books to help them find out how to improve their lives. Others read the words of philosophers. I read the words of Harry Chapin and on Saturday evening I came across the two phrases at the top of this blog.
Just look at them: "I want the fact I existed to matter." And then the other one "commitment makes your life worthwhile." How true both of those are. Now I'm retired there is no reason for not vegetating apart from the fact that it would take me on a nasty and very slippery slope and I'm certainly not one to go down slopes.
When I finished with work I really did want to find a niche and to do something worthwhile. People have been very kind in telling me that I HAVE been doing something worthwhile. I had a particular e mail a few days ago saying that without my support something good wouldn't have happened. I don't really want to go into that any further but I definitely subscribe to both of Harry Chapin's comments and particularly "commitment makes life worthwhile." Indeed it does.
Chapin also used the phrase "If in doubt, do something." There are so many themes in his songs that ring so true. So when Donald Trump is accusing Joe Boden of being too senile to be president of the USA and Biden is accusing Trump of being less than honest, I prefer to remember the great Americans and top of my list is always Mr Chapin. He fought against world hunger and supported many other causes. I don't think it is beyond the realms of possibility that had he lived Harry Chapin may well have gone into politics
On Saturday night I had no intention of listening to the concert but something drew me to it. Perhaps at that time and at that point in the day I needed to listen to some of life's truths as put forward in Harry Chapin's songs. If you don't know what I'm talking about just give his music a listen.
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Before returning from North Norfolk we popped into Cromer for lunch. One of the tea rooms we wanted to try was closed, so we went to the Red Lion.
That used to be my watering hole of choice when I lived and worked in the town. I don't remember much about the place although I can picture the bar from all those years ago when the landlord was a former police officer with a beard called Dave.
I usually went to the Red Lion with my flatmate John after we had played tennis or table tennis or squash.
So as I ate lunch with the other four fifths I tried to remember the dates for when I lived in Cromer. I don't have to guess though as my life is well documented by over 50 years of diaries. And a quick check on my website showed that I moved to Cromer in March 1974 which means its 50 years next month. Where has that time gone? I couldn't help thinking that anyone born during my relatively short time in Cromer would now be over 50.
It's strange how time warps. Memories seem to elongate time. I was only at journalism college for nine months but it seems a lot longer due to everything I packed into such a short time. Similarly I only lived in Cromer for about 16 months. Again I packed so much in that it seemed much longer.
It works the other way as well. I only worked in Nottingham for four months but hated practically every minute of it and it seemed much longer.
Our lunch at the Red Lion was ok-ish although the other four fifths found har pork rather chewy and the crackling impossible to crunch. She had a large cider whilst I had orange juice and lemonade as I was driving later. Whether the cider had an adverse effect on her I'm not sure but we went our separate ways on the way out. I went through the door marked men and she went through the one marked ladies.
Now the Red Lion is well known for its jokes and odd facts that are all over the place. I'm not in the habit of taking photographs in a men's loo but I didn't have time to commit the jokes and strange facts to paper and there wasn't anyone else there.
So I took a photo of the jokes in what I term the men's sit-down cubicle. Ladies of course have lots of these whereas men also have what are termed urinals. These can be individual or something akin to a trough.
The urinal in the Red Lion was of the communal trough style. Above this were a lot more jokes and interesting facts and so I decided to take a couple more photos as there was nobody else there.
I was in the middle of taking the photos when the door behind me opened. "Oh heck" I thought, I'm going to have to explain to some bloke why I'm taking photos in the loo, particularly as the flash has just gone off. That's flash as in a camera light and not in some other meaning of the word. I apologise for all the less than wholesome toilet humour today.
But it wasn't some bloke that came in. It was the other four fifths who had wandered through the wrong door despite the clear sign that said "men".
She did a double take, realised where she was and hurried out with me close behind. "Good job it was only you in there," she said.On that I couldn't possibly comment.
I was on the point of making the usual joke about it being a posh loo " because it's where all the big knobs hang out" but thought better of it.
The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful and we were home in good time. But here for your entertainment are the first set of interesting facts from the men's sit down loo at the Red Lion. Don't ever say this blog isn't educational. Did you know that:
Kleenex Tissues were originally used as filters in gas masks.
It would take a sloth one month to travel one mile.
It is impossible for pigs to look up to the sky. You'll know this is true because have you ever seen a pig stargazing?
The earliest recorded mention of Cromer Red Lion was 1766 - exactly 200 years before England won the World Cup. Yes I had to get football in somewhere.
More from the Lion Loo tomorrow.
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In the Observer newspaper was an article about Albert Einstein's stay in a hut on Roughton Heath in Norfolk. This is something I've written about in the past. It's a strange but true story that the hut was the last ever place in mainland Europe that Einstein stayed at before going to the USA. The pub at Roughton has a blue plaque mentioning this and there's plenty on the internet about it.
Einstein was protected during his stay by bodyguards and the whole thing was meant to be very hush hush, which is presumably why the hut's owner and Einstein's friend took a party of journalists over there to meet the great man. Nowadays the story is so fantastic that it would probably be dismissed as fake news.
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Now today you may or may not see more photographs of North Norfolk. Yesterday I had laptop problems again and only managed to publish one photo. I have now installed a mouse to see if that makes any difference. If the photos are there you will know it has made a difference. If they aren't you will know it hasn't.