When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?
When it comes to doing stuff involving others I try really hard not to be someone who over-promises and under-delivers, who talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk, all mouth and no trousers, all fur coat and no kickers, all hat and no cattle. So if I say I’ll do something, I do try to follow through and won’t ever promise something I have no intention of keeping to. But when it comes to making promises to myself I’m forever telling the whole world I’m going to lose weight, eat healthily and do more yoga and yet here I am, even more overweight, comfort-eating for Scotland, and even less supple than ever before… Sigh!
What does the world need less of?
Let’s just go with pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth…
Do you feel older or younger than your age?
Right now, older… For the longest time I felt younger than my age, but since hitting menopause a few years ago I’ve really started to feel my real age. And then since catching Covid in January, and still not quite being over it yet (Long Covid is so exhausting to deal with) I feel the whole experience has really aged me – I suppose because the combination of such prolonged deep-seated tiredness and shortness of breath and aching limbs and headaches leaves me feeling more than a bit down, and drained, and old before my time.
What is a cause you’ll always passionately support?
Feminism… We’ve come a long way – well, some of us have, although sadly some are steadily going backwards – but too many people only pay lip service to the idea of gender equality without it ever meaning anything. In my experience in far too many places it’s still a man’s world at source, where man is the entitled norm and woman the faithful side-kick, the after-thought, the spare rib to be indulged or controlled as necessary… It bothers me that so many (usually insecure) men complain of emasculation by women when all that is being asked is the removal of the invisible male privilege inherent in society. In my mind if anyone’s sense of self-importance is dependent only on the subtle (or not so subtle) subjugation of someone else then it’s no more than a puffed-up illusion in the first place. I understand that the wholesale removal of that beneficial-to-half-the-population illusion of gender superiority is perceived by many men to be a threat to their lived experience to date, but that perception doesn’t alter the reality of fact. Being born with a penis doesn’t make you a better person straight out of the womb than someone without, it’s just culture that creates that belief. And it’s clear that religion – including Christianity, look at Adam and Eve – definitely helps create and perpetuate that cultural belief in a male-dominated system. (A similar argument could probably be made for racism, of course, but being a white woman that’s not my personal experience – and yes, I’m very aware that’s my white privilege talking…)
What is your personal affirmation (if you have one)?
‘Something will turn up’… Whatever happens in life, whenever the chips are down I reassure myself that something will turn up to move things forward again, and so far I must be right because I’m still here…
