I saw an advert for a cover to put on your walking boots to keep bugs out. It took me back to Greenland. Some of the time I would just sleep under a canvas, no tent, so I had to keep the bugs out of my boots. Oddly enough I found that I had socks under my boots which could do the job. I guess gimmicks are a good way to make money.
Today I tuned in to Nick and his 7am morning prayer. One of the things he said was “today’s trouble is enough for today”. It got me thinking about the news – how they always have to find something to keep us hooked. I often see news articles that are really non-news.
I remember the big article about the Brexit deal mentioning Netscape, and that being trumpeted as an example of Brexit incompetence – when in actual fact it is a current EU requirement that we have applied for years. But the news had to find something to report on.
But it struck me that it isn’t just news. I started to think about how we often need to speak loud, to exaggerate our lives a bit, so people can hear us. We need that interaction with others and sometimes we push ourselves out to get it.
That reminded me of Greenland. On my last night I always stay in a hotel. Late in the night I went out to see if I could see the Northern Lights.
As I walked away from the hotel I became aware of the noise from the hotel bar which had half a dozen people from the European mainland in it. They were just being normal, but the noise stretched out for hundreds of metres. A couple of Greenlanders were nearby and I asked whether “we” were noisy. They laughed and said yes.
The first time I went to Greenland I had plans to walk from one village to another. That lasted three days – and then I just stopped and sat there. And that is why I go back. Just to sit there. I see locals do the same.
No internet, no books, no anything, just time in my own head. Learning to be rather than having to do. Maybe that is why I find lockdown easier than a lot of people, although it isn’t as easy here to not do anything.
But I recommend taking 30 minutes or so at a time and just sit there not doing and not thinking, just being in your own head (maybe with a nice coffee).