Friday 8 December 2023

Lifestyle choices. Writing choices.

There has been some online disappoval of my travel write-ups. Not the write-ups per se, or their content, but more that I write them at all. Possibly even that I travel full stop, though maybe I am taking that a little far. The view expressed was that my travel write-ups sat uncomfortably in a time when many people are struggling with the bare necessities. It wasn't said quite like that but that was the general thrust. Personally I take the view that if I dislike what I am reading I stop reading it, but if one person feels strongly enough to mention it, however bluntly, then there are likely others who will feel the same. Maybe I should not be rising to the bait but here goes.

Let me start by saying that I am not tone deaf. I appreciate that I am exceptionally lucky to be able to travel as I do, and that many people cannot and probably will never be able toIs that a reason not to write about it, for fear that I could come across as ostentatious? I'm not a particularly showy person, but I do have a good job that allows me to travel and pursue other interests. That said it's some way from a free ride - I take it very seriously and I work pretty hard. I lost it once, wasn't my fault, and was unemployed for over two years. Travel simply stopped. When I got another job, at the same company as it happens, I started going on holiday again. Sounds fair to me. Do other people work harder than I do in more difficult jobs for less money? You bet they do. Is that fair? Maybe not. Is that a fact of life? Yes. Can I do anything about it? Not really. Am I going to preface every single post about a trip I've been on by apologising for having been able to go on it? Absolutely not.

This is just what it is. I can't be paralysed by the circumstances of other people and the times we live in. Maybe that is the definition of tone deaf? For most of my working life there has been some catastrophe or other that makes peoples lives hard, it is just constant. The fallout from Brexit, high inflation and high interest rates are just the latest ones. Is it worse than it has ever been? Old people will say no and with good reason, young people will say yes, also with good reason. I'm somewhere in between. It wears you down, how can it not? But I appreciate I'm one of the lucky ones, I've generally always had options. But to forgoe those options because I'm worried about what people might think of me? Inequality is inescapable and in my view it's getting worse. I will be at the ballot box as soon it opens in order to try and reduce inequality by getting rid of those who think that living in a tent is a lifestyle choice, but I am not going to be stymied by it. That's not me. I write what I want to write about, and nobody dictates to me what that is. I feel very strongly about this.

I'm not contracted, not paid, not conflicted in any way. Total freedom to write about what I want. Blogging is a dying medium, very few people read them and the stats back that up. So what? Have you seen me try and change with the times? No you have not. Within this slowly diminishing format it is the travel posts that gain the least response and the fewest views - I am well aware that they have the least capacity to resonate but have you seen me give up writing them because of that? No you have not. Any ideas why that is? If anyone thinks it's because I'm trying to show off they are very much mistaken. My writing isn't in a crowing style, like some gormless influencer being paid to promote the so-called high life; I write because I want to. That's all it is. I enjoy planning my trips, I enjoy going on them, I enjoy going through the photos I've taken, I enjoy looking at historic eBird lists, and I enjoy reliving them by writing them up. I hope that other people may find them useful, informative or interesting, but I don't expect it or demand it. The key words are "I" and "enjoy".

Sometimes - more often that not - I don't write at all. Mostly this is because writing is mood-related in ways that even after all this time I am unable to fully fathom. I just don't feel like it, it's not enjoyable, and so I don't do it (witness February to June this year). Periodically this changes and you cannot hold me back, which is a period I am in right now. And this is when I encounter the second impediment to writing: my life is on the whole exceptionally dull. I work as a middle manager for a multi-national firm. As mentioned above I've worked for this same company for close to 25 years now, my whole adult life more or less. I get up in the morning, spend the day in an office in London, and come home again. Often I just go straight to bed. My day, such that it was, has contained nothing of interest whatsoever, but I don't go and write a blog post about it to try and demonstrate solidarity. I just get up the next day and do the same thing again. This same job that has for years funded my lifestyle is also extremely restrictive.

Now the blog may not currently paint that picture, and it may appear as if I am on some kind of permanent jolly. I'm not. I am just writing up prior trips whilst I have the mental and emotional capacity to do so. There are admittedly a lot - see above, I'm fortunate - but is that really so offensive? It's that or bread. Actually the stats would suggest that people prefer bread, but also, see above. Any suggestion that I should stop writing about trips in recognition of the general malaise and cost of living crisis just isn't justified in the context of why I do it and what I get out of it. I do not write in order to shove my lifestyle down people's throats. If it genuinely upsets somebody that I spend money travelling and then have the temerity to write about it afterwards then they're reading the wrong web page, and I would respectfully suggest that they seek whatever it is that they are looking for elsewhere. I'll take the stats hit, no problem.

16 comments:

  1. Don't beat yourself up, you could be a saint and still receive negative comments about your lifestyle. Blogging is a platform where folk can share their adventures, nothing more. Continue to share your slant on the world, it's a journey that won't get a second version, somewhere down the line. If you're lucky enough to experience global travel, so be it, don't feel guilty about the quirk of fortune life has provided. - Dylan

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    1. There is no second chance you are right. It's luck, but also judgement to a certain extent, it's about the choices you make in order to get where you want to go. Thanks Dylan.

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  2. Please don't stop the travel posts - I really enjoy them, and the plants, food, wine etc, even more than (in fact more than) Wanstead Birds. We bought Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls' veg recipe book because of you!!

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    1. Oh I am not going to, this was a riposte of sorts!

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  3. Don't reach for the sackcloth and ashes just yet. You work hard, so why shouldn't you enjoy the fruits of your labour? And why shouldn't you write about it? If people don't like it, they're free to stop reading. Personally, I love your trip reports, partly because I never have and never will do that type of travelling/birding. I certainly don't resent the opportunities you have, and I don't get any sense of entitlement or ostentation on your part. More power to your elbow. – Malcolm

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  4. This blog is a gift, freely given and very much appreciated as such. Some may scorn this gift, and that's fine. Personally I love it, some is relevant to me and some less so. It's the only place I've read about hats, shoes, coats, house plants and fine wines and enjoyed that read. Haters gonna hate buddy. It's your blog, for yourself. The rest of us just accept it as the gift it is.

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  5. Seth's sentiment above nails it for me. Blogs are free - it is easy to miss that point - and as such are a gift from the writer to the reader. So, if you are a willing reader, there is a well-known saying involving gift-horses' gobs that applies.

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  6. Thanks all for the general agreement on blogging. As I also said in the post, it is indeed free - no subscriptions and unsponsored, not even of those silly ads you sometimes you see. I guess that with that comes a lack of editorial oversight, which maybe sometimes it could do with as I exist and write in somewhat of a bubble. As in real life, if it were a job I suspect it would soon become a chore.

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  7. I am one of the dying breed of bloggers and blog readers Jonathan. Whilst I look at your posts like a kid through a sweet shop window, where most of your locations could be on the moon for me, I still read them all and enjoy the writing. Some of those making comments re the carbon footprint are fixated fundamentalists who spend all their time online giving people grief with a holier than thou attitude. Even though I only fly very rarely, eat 80% vegan ( and about 10% vegatarian with an odd bit of fish and dairy for the rest), have no kids, I don't waste money on landfill tat for the sake of it etc its still not good enough for some. They will always take the high ground for living on a birding hotspot and having a bike!

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    1. Yes. I know who you are talking about. It's a shame, I instinctively like him, and the message is sound. But it's way that message is delivered (constantly) that just ends up getting peoples' backs up. I'm not sure I blame him, it must be very frustrating, but at the same time.... From my perspective I've wrestled with it a huge amount but ultimately I am a huge pessimist. I've been to America enough to know that no matter what I do as an individual do it is essentially pissing in the wind - the consumption, constant excess and way of life across that vast country has to be seen to be believed. And I've not even been to China or other countries at the beginning of their industrial cycle. It is highly depressing on one level. Where I ended up was that I only get so many trips round the sun, why be miserable for the rest of them for the sake of moral superiority? I've read and in some cases agree with the counter-arguments to this but it doesn't change it for me. I'm not a sceptic, we're screwed, but I don't need the (as you say) holier than thou sniping brigade to ram that down my throat at every opportunity.

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  8. I for one thoroughly enjoy your blog, your writing style, photos and fantastic trip reports. You don't come across as gloating or smug. Please keep going! Matt

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    1. Thanks Matt, no intention of stopping writing because somebody else doesn't like it. The only person who will stop me writing is me.

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  9. I also enjoy your blog - all aspects and I have sometimes used it to help my own travel planning. Air travel only contributes 2.5% of global emissions - the problem is that only a small percentage of people (including me) fly. But governments need to take action - for individuals it's a waste of time

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    1. I live underneath one of the Heathrow "holds", plus quite close to City Airport. From my window where I work I see planes all day long, probably one every 2 minutes heading in to land at LHR or taking off from LCY. I just looked it up and 100,000 flights a year depart from Heathrow. I was on 15 of them and most were full. If I stopped tomorrow there would be somebody else in that seat. Individual actions are pointless. Governments could and should step in, for instance why is there no VAT or other tax on aviation fuel? I can fly to pretty anywhere in Europe for less money than it costs to take a train, sometimes many multiples. That dynamic needs to change but lecturing me (not you, other people) won't change it.

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  10. Love your Kruger National Park photos and write up Jono. Please keep taking the photos and blogging. Your work requires you to live in an urban environment so I think you are entitled to take some trips to the wilderness. Don't get me started on Climate Acvtivists ...

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    1. Thanks DD. What provoked this whole post wasn't actually climate change, it was more about inequality and shouldn't I just keep quiet in the face of the crisis in the cost of living. Which I fundamentally disagreed with. Didn't stop a climate activist jumping on it on somebody else's blog and spinning it for their own use though, and so that subsequently manifested itself in the comments here. Frankly if someone like Stewart isn't perceived in some quarters as being sufficiently carbon neutral then nobody is.

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