My Life As A Comic Book Superhero

I want to share something with you. I want to tell you something about the story I have been researching and writing based on interviews undertaken with Freegans. I have called it Human Conditions and given that it is nearing completion I want to share the introduction with you all.

As you know I like to think that everything I write is a work of art. So when I work, and especially with regard to factual material I think angle, tone, introduction, redundant words, style and so on. I also like to think carefully about the subject matter and how this can be mixed into the work in a symbolic fashion. When walking with my dogs over some fields about three miles from Kilmarnock a few weeks ago it occurred to me that I could use the idea of the 'global village' and use this image translated, if you like, into an extended metaphor. So, this is how I started Human Conditions -


I live in a bizarre neighbourhood. On the sunny side of the street - if we hang out with the metaphor - some individuals are so mega-rich they can afford to live in castles or multi-room mansions. The USA, alone, produces enough food to feed the world several times over and we can now travel around the globe in hours rather than weeks.

Simultaneously, on the darker side of the hood people still die unnecessarily of easily remedied ailments and/or lack of food. Every night millions go to bed starving, our cities are full of armies of the homeless and the planet we depend on for our continued existence is being poisoned to death.


None of this makes any sense to me. Maybe...I am missing something? If I am, It seems I am not alone.

The trick now is to conclude with a link pointing back to the introduction, and here it is, again from Human Conditions

Everywhere we look, existence is often a pattern of stark and crazy contradictions. On this corner greed ravages and plunders the planet, damages the lives of indiviudals and animals and calls it globalisation. The well-fed puff cigars after a multi-course lunch while their neighbours are starved out of existence. In this weird and distorted district morbid obesity waddles around with tottering famine, ostentatious, self-indulgent overspend sleeps with wretched poverty, mansions with many unused rooms mock those without shelter.

I particularly like that last part of the last sentence, the thought of mansions mocking the homeless. After the above there is a short concluding statement.

On a lighter, and happier note, I am organising a trip to Goat Fell on Arran and some actual climbing, both in May.

Today, I actually managed to run, pain free for the first time in two years, though I did not go far. Since I crashed my bike about two years ago, I have been plagued with injuries, knee, calf, and torn stomach muscles. I have had physiotherapy and have been consulting a surgeon. It has been a long, long time, but it was a joy to actually get out and move freely.

Now, at last, I can resume my football career, right where did I put my favourite Heart of Midlothian top. I will make Kris eat his words! (Rubs hands with glee)