The talk was actually about people who have inspired us, but whom we have never met. So relations, friends etc were out. When I asked the group to name their heroes it was an expected list of actors/musicians etc that came to the fore.
The person that has inspired me from about the age of 21 is the American singer-songwriter Harry Chapin who I have mentioned before. Many of Chapin's lyrics have over the years summed up my views and attitudes to life. Examples are too numerous to list here and I will return to this topic in subsequent blogs, but one of the most inspirational verses goes as follows:
Now if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man's life could be worth
Well I wonder what would happen to this world
This is not a sexist verse as Chapin then goes on to mention women:
And if a woman
She used a life line
As something more than
Some man's servant mother wife time
Well I wonder what would happen to this world
The obvious inference is that if all of us gave unstintingly, the world would be a much better place. Like many of Chapin's lyrics, the apparently simple can be very complex in meaning.
I firmly believe that if we all work hard in our local communities, what we do will have a lasting effect not only on that community but on the wider world. Our job is to encourage more people to volunteer within their own communities to make them (in the title of another Chapin song) "A Better Place to Be."
Today our local library held a healthy Hethersett day with lots of good information on food nutrition, sport and exercise, holistic medicine etc. I was there to represent the local sports association. I can't say the library was flooded out with visitors but the juice bike proved particularly popular. This is a novel concept - a bike that turns fruit and fruit juice into a healthy smoothie. So good for the legs, the lungs and the stomach all at the same time.
I took the opportunity to have a health check which proved a bit mixed. My Body Mass Index for my height is a tad high. Basically I need to lose two inches off my waist and about 11 pounds off my weight. I get a fair amount of exercise through walking, a bit of running, some table tennis etc but from Monday it's back on the bike to get a few miles under my belt in order for that belt to be taken in a couple of notches. Also my blood pressure was thought to be a bit high so I need to check that out.
Was saddened to read in the local newspaper that a former colleague Paul Durrant has terminal cancer.