Overview

 

I've always had a need to give back. I'm not sure why, but perhaps growing up in a poor but incredibly decent family contributed to the idea that happiness is both in giving and belonging. A year spent in a Buddhist monastery also made me appreciate how important it is to try and reduce suffering. As a kid, whilst my poor step-father was made repeatedly redundant in Birmingham, the only thing I really had was Scouts - it gave me a basis of skills and self-pride, that I think I could have gone off the rails without. And we had adventures (always cold and wet though)!​ As an adult, I became a Scout Leader after being invited following giving a talk about hillwalking at night. I've now been doing that for two decades.  During Covid, I joined the Royal Voluntary Service, calling the most vulnerable or isolated and later manning the inoculation centres.

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Then the horrible Ukraine invasion happened, following a preceding set of serious mischief by Putin and his illegal annexation of Crimea. Why do we allow a handful of cynical old men such harmful power in the world? I have family in Ukraine. So I joined Macclesfield Ukrainian Aid, one of the most incredible groups of people it is my good fortune to have known. I'm onto my fifth convoy, but many of them have done far more.

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Altruism is crucial - it is a natural human capacity that Adam Smith wrote about in The Theory of Moral Sentiments and it gives me so much hope. Whenever we see disasters, attacks and moments of war, we also see strangers in extreme peril helping one and other. It's only ideas that spoil this quality. At the end of Flight to Arras, Saint-Exupery realises that he wouldn't die for the victims of war, but he would for the people that give up their space in the back of a wagon for a pregnant woman or dig through rubble to pull people out. When he realised this, he could once again see a future for Europe. Sadly, we are right back there again.

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If you're interested in any of this, please watch my TEDX talk on the subject but also you can see some examples from my voluntary practice below. I have tried also to make links on the site to Macclesfield Ukrainian Aid, if you would like to donate, or you can contact me.