Urban curiosity #1: The Roslin Street bimney

I love living in the UK. Its the history - you don't need to read a single book about it, you simply need to walk the streets and look around. I love it. I love the walls whose mortar has been patched up innumerable times. The tombstones summarising the lives of people who walked the same streets before the country I'm from could fathom calling itself a nation. From the moss-lined ruins of a castle that once stood proud, to the old granite building that somehow now houses my flat, the history is alive, its visceral, its experienced.

Tragically though, in no time at all, those wonders become the norm and so easily ignored on daily commutes and dog walks to the beach. But they're still there and so is that sense of wonder. I just need to dig a little deeper and pay a bit closer attention. And not just look, but document and consider and discuss and debate. Are there treasures hiding in plain sight? Pilot's cap with goggles on? Check. Map with X marking the spot? Check. Sense of adventure? Check. Daily requirement to walk dog? Check check.

The first discovered curiosity is some sort of canon-like chimney or bell. If you know what this is, please let me know- but until then, I'll call it the Roslin Street bimney.

Doing and being

I recently got back into reading fiction and it's been awesome. It's one of those things I didn't realise I was missing. Picking up a book had this profound effect on me, reminding me that I am so much more than what I do. It reminded me that I can spend a day reading something that has no bearing on my work and that can still be beneficial to me. Sounds silly, I know. It's not to say that I don't love reading non-fiction and academic papers, because I do. But in doing so, in immersing myself so deeply and completely in my studies, I've slowly lost touch with a lot of what - who - I am outside of my work. I've somehow begun to define myself by what I do rather than who I am. And that's a problem. Defining myself by what I do requires me to put a lot stake into what other people think because what I do has certain normative markers that are largely judged by other people. And the danger then becomes that I define myself not even by what I do, but by what I think other people think I should do. And we can't have any of that. No sir-ee.

Conversely, defining myself by who I am and who I want to be requires only one judge: me. It also reminds me that what I do is not an end in itself, but a means to being and becoming the man I am and want to be. It reminds me that I'm in the UK not only to do a PhD, but to live, to love, to laugh, and to grow as a person. I'm here to build a life with Leigh, to explore, to try new things, to meet new people, to enjoy the company of great friends, to be myself.