Shine a light in the darkness

.Wednesday, June 27, 2012 Herald Express - my stuff in this week's paper.....

I REALLY love Paignton's Fairy Cove! Fairy Cove is a quiet little beach tucked away under the Roundham Head's red sandstone cliff just east of the Paignton harbour sea wall. It's a great place to watch the sun rise and a wonderful beach for family picnics, swimming and just having fun. Access to the beach is either by steep steps from Cliff Road or via the harbour.

This morning I came down those steep cliff steps and paused on the shore to splash sea water over my face. It's a tingly sensation I enjoy especially when I then let the salty water evaporate from my skin in the warm morning sunshine. Two very simple things, and yet so incredibly spiritually refreshing.


Sadly, my good humour soon evaporated faster than the water from my face when I found the path from Fairy Cove to the harbour yet again blocked by large trucks, multiple plastic crates and two huge, ugly containers. The latter exist because of a silly decision by the harbour administration allowing them to be dumped in a conservation area, and that nonsense is now being rectified all too slowly via planning enforcement. I've watched tourists angrily turn away from this lovely beach rather than risk taking the family through the messy hazard. This is a curious tourism paradox, but I will leave that to the English Riviera Tourism Company and Torbay harbours to sort between them if they feel so inclined. But hey, there are bigger things to worry about just now.

One of those bigger things popped up on the horizon the other day when the plans for a third harbour appeared on the front page of the Herald Express complete with a picture of our mayor looking whimsically out to sea. I had thought we had escaped from such mayoral visions, but it would seem that mystical insights are still out and about. It's going to have to be a very deep harbour indeed to accommodate huge cruise ships packed full of folk just itching to shop in Fleet Walk, Castle Circus and Torwood Street.

But let me not be a harbinger of gloom because I really do love exciting new ideas, so long as they work for the greater good.

Part of the greater good is making certain that all the usual checks and balances are in place. I worry also that funding for the research, which alone will be hundreds of thousands of pounds, is to come from reserves. Now the thing about reserves is... that's right, they are in reserve for the unforeseen!

Now, about that greater good thing. These are indeed tough times, with so many of us being battered by economic hardship and a constant torrent of confusing political rhetoric. If you've been following the Leveson Inquiry then you must by now have your head in your hands after the daily wriggling and twisting from our political leaders. It can seem very depressing at a time when the national mood is already somewhat subdued.

Which leads me neatly on to the topic mental health and to something I rarely seem to do these days.
That rarity for me is actually praising a politician. Now, why on earth would I want to do that? Well, if you fall and break a leg, people will gather around and quickly call an ambulance.

They will also try to ensure you are comfortable and tell you help is on the way. On the other hand, if you fall to the ground sobbing, people tend to go out of their way to avoid you. Yet in truth too often the person weeping with chronic depression is probably in more danger than the person with the broken leg.

So who therefore gets my praise? Well, it is Totnes MP Doctor Sarah Wollaston who stood up in the House of Commons the other day and said she had once suffered from depression. That sort of self-disclosure is a brave thing to do these days, and especially so coming from a doctor. She went on to say that having been depressed that it now made her more empathetic toward patients suffering in that dark and lonely place. Believe me, it is indeed a dark and lonely place, for I too made a visit some years ago. Good friends held out a hand and helped me climb out of the pit. Empathy is certainly what is needed, and not sympathy! It's good to shine a little light in the darkness.

So let's go back to where I started. So often the joyful things in life tend to be staring us in the face. It can be something as simple, as it was for me this morning, like splashing sea water in your face and drying off in the sun! It's also about looking out for each other and, as Sarah Wollaston says, finding a little empathy. Oh yes,and do try to keep the smile.