Thinking about writing this week's blog I toyed with the idea of writing about loneliness. I know that is reaching epidemic levels especially among the elderly and various organisations, including Age UK who have opened a helpline and friendship call scheme for the elderly and housebound. I am very annoyed by automated checkouts in the supermarkets - if you are elderly or disabled and make one shopping trip a week, how upsetting must it be if no-one communicates with you. A machine can't say 'Hello' or 'How are you?' and that interpersonal interaction can be so important. I was deleted to hear that Booths are removing their automated tills because people don't like them. Amen to that!
Thinking about loneliness lead me to consider the experience of 'the long distance runner' - ha ha! That led me to a remarkable event of the 1960s that sticks out in my then, young memories. The experience of a remarkable man called Sir Francis Chichester.
In 1958, Chichester was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. (This might have been a misdiagnosis; David Lewis, a London doctor, who competed against Chichester in the first solo trans-Atlantic race, reviewed his case and called Chichester's abnormality a "lung abscess".) His wife Sheila put him on a strict vegetarian diet (now considered to be a macrobiotic diet) and his cancer went into remission. Chichester then turned to long-distance yachting.
In 1960, he entered and won the first Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race, which had been founded by 'Blondie' Hasler in the 40 foot ocean racing yawl Gipsy Moth III. He came second in the second race four years later.
On 27 August 1966 Chichester sailed his ketch Gipsy Moth IV from Plymouth in the United Kingdom and returned there after 226 days of sailing on 28 May 1967, having circumnavigated the globe, with one stop (in Sydney). By doing so, he became the first person to achieve a true circumnavigation of the world solo from West to East via the great Capes. The voyage was also a race against the clock, as Chichester wanted to beat the typical times achieved by the fastest fully crewed clipper ships during the heyday of commercial sail in the 19th century. His global voyage was the first to be commercially sponsored, with the International Wool Secretariat's Woolmark featured on the bows of Gipsy Moth IV and Chichester's baseball cap.
Can you imagine the experience he endured. The world's oceans can be a cruel master but the solitude must be the worst thing by far. During lockdown, we all, especially those with immune deficiencies, had a taste of enforced solitude - but 226 days is an incredibly long spell. I cannot imagine it - I would go completely doolally.
.jpg)
Solitaire
I embark in Gypsy Moth IV and sail to the Canaries,
there to catch the South Trades towards the Caribbean.
I fight the storms that lurch and toss me
around the Cape of Good Hope
then nip into port in Sydney for provisions
departing for South China seas
from Indonesia to Cape Horn.
I'm almost home now
longing for conversation
the companionship of friends.
Thank you for reading. Adele
6 comments:
As far as I remember solitaire (the board game), the board is set out with rows of holes or indentations in the form of a cross within a circle. At the start of the game every hole is filled (with marbles) except the centre one. The objective of the game is to 'take' marbles out of the game by 'leapfrogging' into a vacant hole (and removing the jumped marble). The goal is to ensure the last 'take' lands the last remaining marble in the central hole on the board. I used to play it as a child with a set my great-grandfather had made and I memorised a solution (sequence of moves) but there's probably more than one way to do it. I'd have to refigure it all out again now.
My youngest brother (aged 9 at the time) went with his Boys' Brigade troupe down to Plymouth in 1967 to meet Gypsy Moth IV arriving home after his global voyage.
I don't have a problem spending long periods of time on my own providing they are finite and I can see friends every few days. I suppose that, having been in cohabiting relationships pretty much continuously from 18 to 60, the novelty of living on my own hasn't quite worn off yet ;-)
I've heard about 'loneliness libraries' in Denmark I think where people can go and just sit and talk to someone. That sounds like such a wonderful idea. ❤️
One good thing social media has done is allow people to be virtual friends very easily. It may not be the same as meeting face-to-face but there is a sense of community that is more immediate than when all we had was landlines and letters.
Have you read Kurt Vonnegut's novel 'Slapstick (Lonesome No More)'? In it the title character created, among other things, a plan to end loneliness in America through vast extended families. Under the plan, all citizens would be provided with new middle names, made of the name of a random natural object paired with a random number between 1 and 20. Everyone with the same name would be cousins, and everyone with the same name and number would be siblings. They would wear insignia of their object name and everyone would be obliged to help their cousins.
What an achievement, to sail solo around the world.
I wonder what he felt like when he came ashore and had to mix with people again.
Post a Comment