Saturday, April 25, 2009

Englishness

Dropped into Bishop Alan's Blog (I commend it) where I read his thoughts on St George's Day. He said, '... being English is something to do with fairness, scientific curiosity, a quirky passion for personal freedom, amateurism, tolerance, justice for the underdog, tradition and evolution, pragmatism, and creativity.'

I love being English and have always given that as my nationality if it was one of the choices, rather then GB or UK. I remember thinking as a child that I was incredibly fortunate to live here rather than anywhere else in the world. I stick with that, even if I might be Roman, Saxon or Viking deep down in the DNA.

What would I add to his lovely list? Being English is about never being far from the sea, undulating countryside, the colour green everywhere, understanding that sometimes it's good to be alone, that pints of beer or cups of tea are the first-stop help on the counselling route, that good ideas don't need a point and that aims and objectives are often over-rated, that good enough is sometimes good enough, that it's OK to chill even when you haven't finished and I need to go out for lunch now but I haven't finished yet.

2 comments:

Caroline Too said...

musing on your list, st, some other marks of Englishness

not taking ourselves too seriously - attractive but could also be damaging

always knowing why not rather than asking why not - always damaging

delight in intrigue, puzzle and loose ends - leads to detective novels, gossip and sudoku

not sure if we know our station and are happy with it
or
know our station and will kick like hell against it
- leads to not trusting our 'leaders' but entrusting them with all potential to change things; entirely damaging to them and us.

Greenpatches said...

I'm with you on the cup of tea front!