Run

With a tumultuous week behind us and a momentous one in front of us in the run-up to the EU referendum, your Saturday Blogger feels impelled to voice an opinion concerning Brexit. I've been thinking over what to say while I've been out on my daily run (trying to maintain a sane mind in a healthy body, you understand).

This is the most important decision we have been asked to make in a quarter-century. Whilst the European Union as an institution is far from perfect, I'm very much of the view that we should vote to remain while looking to improve the EU further from within.

I suppose in a nutshell it comes down to value systems and my instinctive preference for an open rather than a closed approach - meaning I favour a constructive, co-operative and expansive world view that embraces change and stands for the greater good (or common weal as it used to be known) rather than one that is rooted in fear, self-interest and a somewhat anachronistic nationalism.

I believe it was an unfortunate decision by Cameron and crew to call the referendum in the way they did. I think the campaigning has not been a credit to either side. I suspect the economic, political and social fall-out if the country does vote on Thursday to leave the EU will adversely impact the UK for decades to come.

All of which doesn't have much to do with the week's blog theme of Run! So the image below is an attempt to get back on track and I include it as a pictorial antidote to the propaganda thrust at us by the Leave campaign with its grim posters depicting hordes of migrants.

Run, don't walk. Love, don't hate. Trust, don't fear. Embrace, don't shun. Laugh, don't frown. Assist, don't ignore. Open, don't close. Advance, don't retreat. Remain, don't leave.

The poem below is the earliest surviving example of my own writing, uncovered in a recent excavation of old files. As you will discern, it is schoolboy stuff  - literally! I was about 17 when I wrote it, mixing in the influence of A-level studies in history (the French Revolution) and literature (W.B. Yeats and Irish folklore). It was probably intended for the school magazine but was never submitted. Truth to be told, I'm a little embarrassed by its gauche attempt to express the freedom of body and spirit in harmony with nature, but what the heck... it fits the theme of this week's blog quite aptly, so here it is...

Liberté

Run
fleet with the wind
along the slopes of grassy valleys,
hair flying,
beautiful woman,
in your nakedness.
A red sun
chases you westward
across hilltops into evening,
and though many arrows
fly towards you
from the woods below,
still night will find you,
silver in the moon,
sleeping upon the sea.

In memory of Jo Cox, murdered by a simple twist of hate. As Philip Larkin said: "What will survive of us is love."

That's all folks. Thanks for reading. Use your vote wisely. Peace and love, S ;-)