To Begin...

It isn't going to 'all about me' (geddit??) as it usually is. My health is, in general, good. I have a constant cough and I'm still productive and I fear I've fallen into the hole that is 'acceptance', a hole which is a dangerous one to be in. This cough isn't right. But I'm putting on weight, it's not stopping me so why bother bothering about it? But that's all for another day... I'll mention it when in for bloods tomorrow, so we'll see. The brake pedal isn't working on my life right now and so I continue to spin into insanely busy days! Bazza....

A while ago a topic about being labelled 'inspirational' came up on a message board I lurk on. Some people found this label annoying and some, bizarrely, found the term offensive. I would never, ever see myself as inspirational or inspiring in any way, shape or form and if someone were to claim I was then I'd kindly ask them to put their glasses back on. But aside from the arguing of what, who, where, how a person/place/thing is inspirational, I think this has far less to do with that person and what they do, and more to do with the person who takes inspiration from that person/place/thing. Does that makes sense? I think not. Let me put it this way:

Suppose you are someone who clumsily tripped on a banana skin and twisted your ankle, ending you up on crutches. Not that that has happened to anyone I know but, anyway. Every day you take your elderly neighbour lunch. Today is no exception, except you have to do it while on crutches. A horrible nuisance.

Now view it from a bystander who sees a crippled person (is that PC?) on crutches slowly make their way to a neighbour's house, carrying with them lunch for the elderly neighbour. To them, they see this as a 'wow, look what that person has to do and here I am, perfectly able, and perfectly lazy'. They see you and are inspired to do something good.

And yet, you're just simply getting on with what you usually do, albeit slowed down, ultimately due to your clumsiness.

Not exactly getting my point across here very well, but what I'm saying is a person doesn't have to scale mountains, run around the world in 30 days, survive 18,092 diseases with no arms and no legs and then go on to enter and win a triathlon (I don't know why all my examples involve sport...) to be viewed as inspiring because fundamentally it's not about what they do but rather how people perceive them.

And so brings me to the next three things I've seen recently: 1. Slumdog Millionaire.
2. Auschwitz: The Man Who Told the World
3. The Pursuit of Happyness.

Now if I hadn't rambled, I'd be able to say what I wanted to say in the first paragraph but for now I have to go to bed. So I'll say in fancy italics, followed by three tantalising fullstops....To be Continued...