The World

It would be dishonest to say I took the event in my stride. But it would be equally dishonest to say which of the emotional mix was dominant.

In any venture, especially a new one, and despite all the planning, anticipation, confidence and enthusiasm, there is a defining moment of dread, exhilaration, silence, humility, all glued together by a resolve to succeed.

If at that moment you can’t envisage success; give up!

As I unrolled the 103cm by 138cm, 1:22,000,000 scale, 1 inch to 347 miles world map, stuck the double sided adhesive paper on each corner, fixed the picture to my wall and stood back, I pondered and stared for more than a few minutes in silent awe!

It had been many a year since I had viewed the whole vista of our earth never mind looked at it as more than simply a picture; after all this was going to be my living room, bedroom, kitchen, study and garden for the foreseeable future!

As my eyes went from east to west, north to south, and darted here and there the enormity of what I was attempting to do froze the tumbling emotions into not only the crucial determination to succeed but also into the unbreakable faith that I would.

Names jumped out at me from the colours and the contours; many familiar and some less so, many old and many new!

I have travelled to many places in the past either following Celtic, through work or on holiday. But this was different!

After all in the past, adventurous as some of the trips had been, they were all wrapped in a cocoon of security whether by travelling with many others or having all the arrangements organised for me. I would get to the airport, sit in the business lounge, be pampered on the airline, whisked to my hotel and transported to and from work.

But what I now could see on my wall wasn’t just the places and my sketchy knowledge of the peoples and the cultures; what was shouting at me was the sheer scale of the distances, potential barriers and the unknowns that lay in getting from A to B to C.....to Z and then back to A!

The British Isles, no more than a wee set of countries just over an inch long was drowned not so much by the huge expanse of waters covering two-thirds of the earths surface, but by the sheer numbers and magnitude of the living, breathing, evolving countries and peoples making up our biosphere.

347 miles to the inch!! Just under the distance from Glasgow to London and even with a reasonably common language that would be challenging enough with only a back-pack. But thousands upon thousands of miles of mystery. This really was going to be 'something else'!

I focussed in on our own little part of the western world.

Glasgow so different from Edinburgh! Edinburgh so different from Aberdeen! Dublin, Belfast, London, Cardiff, all with their own histories, ways, ambitions and futures.

I could see Spain, Italy, Hungary, Germany, France all within a few inches and all so different but perhaps with a future that may have much more in common for the people than the bloodlust for power and domination of the past!

And yet even in their geographical size these few countries from this small postage stamp had at times dominated the world through the Greek and Egyptian fount of knowledge, the Roman, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Prussian and British empires. Through a leading edge in the technologies adapted either for travel, commerce or warfare these small specks of power had diffused to all corners of the known earth and in one way or another had left a legacy that had created the enlightenments, the medicine, the opportunities, and the political systems which we see the influence of even today.

But look closely at that map not only in our own environment, but look at the Balkans, the expansive variety of Africa, Russia, Indo-China and think back 10 or 20 years. Think of the changes that have occurred, good and bad, since then. View this change as the society’s primordial sludge of evolution and wonder about what in 10 or 20 years time another snapshot of the world will reveal as the content of the earthly melting pot!

There is an urge within us all to know more than we do, whether that be about little things, big things, people, football, history, chemistry, or even the unknown!

But there is more to it than that; I look at the map of the world and the names that inhabit our discarded papers and quickly forgotten bulletins force themselves back into my mind’s eyes and ears. Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Burma, Columbia, Chechnia, Alaska, Palestine, Israel, Zimbabw, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuala, Cuba and a hundred more!

In my head I can see the geographic features, the mountains, lakes, towns, roads, and railways; But I can also see and hear the people; I can see and hear the politicians; I can see and hear the traffic and the arguments. I can smell Life!!

But the sights, voices, sounds and smells are indistinct. I have cotton wool in my ears, motes in my eyes and my nose is blocked by the cold of unfamiliarity.

I need to go to see better, to hear better, to taste and to touch better!

But most of all I need to go to understand better; for surely understanding is the first step to respect and respect is the foundation of peace and love.

Everyone should have a map of the world on their wall. Every child should grow up with that map.

It just might make a difference.

Hail Hail

Matt