Ignorance is bliss
Ignorance is bliss
"What do you miss in the UK?" I asked my father for a few months after he and my mother moved to France in 2010. He considered for a moment: "I am not sure whether I definitely miss Britain, but there are certain things that I know I miss out," he replied. "I feel bad that I will not go to vote. As if I would let someone down ..."
I think about it now, almost a month after our trip, because in a little more than a week there will be a referendum in Scotland about independence. Even if I cannot participate in the vote, the result will touch me deeply.
I am Brit (not English), my family name (Watson) is Scottish - and we have our own tartan, I spent the summer of my youth in Scotland and I still take a regular job north of the border with camping and mountaineering. I love Scotland and I love the Scots; It and they are part of the country from which I come. This country could splinter.
I'm not even sure what I want as a result. As I said, I consider myself a Briton, and Scotland belongs to Great Britain. Apart from that, I believe in democracy and equality, and if the Scots think that as an independent nation they would be better and so choose, then I cannot contradict it.
If I were in London, I would stick to my laptop, see the news and read newspapers, study the latest surveys, analyze the opinions of the editors, follow debates.
instead I think outside, thousands of kilometers away, after how I best open a coconut, where we will spend the night in Fiji and whether we will later swim and lunch to the island of Iririki or not - fair superficial stuff. I am 100 % sure that I would rather be here than in London, but I will not get rid of something.
In about eight months there will be another important vote - the elections in the United Kingdom. And if our funds are not drastically scarce, I will probably also miss this coordination. Once again it will be a big one because there could be several options: a victory of the conservatives or the Labor party or another right coalition are all possible.
Anyone who knows me also knows how offended after the last election results and the profound changes that my country have hit since then. Wherever I will be at the time of the election (I accept somewhere in South America), I am sure that I would rather be there, but I also think I will feel like I will miss something.
It's not just about politics, but about messages in general. I read today that a ceasefire was at least temporarily agreed in Ukraine. This is the first event that I have really taken on the crisis for several weeks.
I realize that I have no idea what happened or happened in Gaza, Syria and the rest of the Middle East - these were all the headlines when I went. UK and World News in general are all somewhat incoherent and distant- I have the feeling that it does not affect me at the moment, and therefore I feel ignorant and guilty. I understand what my father meant. I not only miss something, I also let someone down.
On the other hand, Norwich has played five games so far this football season, and I haven't seen a single of them. The English cricket team is beaten in the one-day series of India, and I did not shout once before despair when we gave up another wind. Rosberg and Hamilton ran a bike and collided at the Grand Prix of Belgium, and I didn't stop the air all the time.
It's a strange feeling to miss something. This trip is something I thought about a year. I planned for this trip and saved for this trip and I made victims for this trip, and that's why I think I deserve this trip. I would not want to go home, open my laptop, read the newspaper and instead watch TV. Instead, I would miss this trip.
I think the most important thing is to remember that there will probably only be a few times in my life in which I can take a trip like this. It is okay to miss news and some events. It is okay to be a bit ignorant every now and then. And it's okay not to feel every painful defeat of another disappointing season in Norwich - it will probably be better for my health anyway.
Whether I am in the United Kingdom or not, the Scottish people will vote for their future, the United Kingdom will choose another incompetent political leader, the Middle East will remain unstable and the English strikers will continue to go on ducks. I will have a lot of time in the future to take care of these things, and I would be a fool to believe that I could change her from my apartment in East London.
Maybe ignorance is just bliss for a year.
.