I am sure the reason why so many great writers have had a tumultuous affair with many a substance is because their drug of choice gave them the ability to sit still for long periods with little interaction with other human beings.

My drug of choice is caffeine and I am no great writer, but if one persists long enough with something one hopefully gets better at it. There is much to write on. However it’s been a challenge to focus and at times I feel a bit all over the shop. Consequently I have had a break from putting thoughts into electrons and pushing them out into the world.

This day I give you a wonderful poignant cartoon from the ever so revealing Michael Leunig – surely one of the great cartoonist this world has ever seen.

At times I relate to the guy on the left, although the bloke on the right probably has the right attitude (maybe a cup of tea instead of hand sanitiser). But I think all who have one foot in the fringe realise many of us live in both a police state and nanny state. Once governments start sending in the Federal stormtroopers then you know the former has manifested. The latter has been a part of the control mechanism for — well forever. And as for paranoid hysteria — that’s well and truly on a roll.

In recent posts I have exclaimed the virtues of stepping back, taking a deep breath, having a good ‘ol look at the shenanigans and moving on to creative, aspirational things as much as possible. When it’s raining great blobs of gooey mess the best umbrella you buy is art. And art can be any silly creative thing that takes your fancy. It’s a good distraction. It’s also an antidote to infection from a dark world that is desperate to bring us into its fold. The Portly Controllers are getting more extreme.

Recently I spent a few weeks creating an hour long nature film with music. I called it Reverence. The music comprises a couple of my own tracks plus tracks from Brian Eno, Lisa Gerrard, Jan Garbarek et al — ambient music with a choral theme. The footage I collaged is grabbed from 20 episodes of the BBC natural history shows — stunning photography with a lot of aerial shots and the result (if you would kindly allow me to blow my own trumpet) is a delight.

It’s a personal project and for copyright reasons I can’t load it up into the youtube universe. If you want to have a look contact me (via Quiet Earth if you like) and I will send it — probably via WETransfer. Although it’s a pretty big file so I will need to shrink it a bit first, which would mean loss of quality but it’s worth it. Looks fantastic on a big screen.

Keep on
James Wild