Obama helps lift the spirits of even the grumpiest
Jan 26 2009 by Sarah Evans, Birmingham Post
To my horror, someone described my outlook on life with particular reference to this column as ‘grumpy’ the other week.
Now - I like to think of myself as a positive, glass-half-full sort of person, able to look with a detached objectivity on the world around us, certainly, see the absurdity in our daily obsessions, a little cynical at times perhaps – but ‘grumpy’, surely not! However since then I have noticed that maybe I do rather dwell on what’s wrong and not what’s right, so here we go on upbeat observations for the week.
The timing is apt because last week gave us the feel-good American Dream in bucketfuls.
From the heart-warming train journey, to the civilised morning coffee with the Bushes, to the moving swearing in (we will move swiftly over the fact that they couldn’t get the words right and had to do it again the next day, because I am not being grumpy) and the inspirational address, the inauguration of Barack Obama cheered more than just America.
The promises for the future, Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, the Middle East all to be resolved harmoniously, gave the world the hope for which it has been pining.
A grumpy person might say that it was like water lilies on a murky pond – gorgeous but short-lived and hiding deep horror and ugliness underneath but I would say, you should never underestimate the strength of hope. If you are, sadly, the sort of person who saw the inauguration as a rather meaningless bolt on to the current economic doom, I can give you something much nearer home to lift the spirits.
Go to Three White Walls Gallery, Level 3, The Mailbox, and see the exhibition of photographs from Sierra Leone, ‘True Colours’. It is a stunning collection of moving and vibrant images from the poorest country in the world.
The exhibition is the work of Great Barr School which has established a link with Peninsula School in Waterloo, Sierra Leone. Great Barr sent out a container full of textbooks, so creating for Peninsula School, the only school library in the country. Three staff from Great Barr then went to visit, wanting to see how best to establish a lasting partnership that would help the children of Peninsula School achieve their aspirations.
The exhibition is a result of that visit. The three staff spoke at an evening opening of the gallery, of their passionate belief that they and Great Barr School could and would make a difference.
They plan to deliver 150 computers that will allow the young people in two such very different countries with such contrasting life experiences to communicate and learn from each other. But it was not the differences rather what binds us all to the people of Sierra Leone on which the three staff dwelt. Parents and teachers the world over share in wanting children to live life to the full and grasp their dreams.
And then there are all the positive things at home on which to dwell – our cat seems to have found a friend and we may have moved nearer to improving my father’s hearing difficulties. But I mustn’t use up all my feel-good stories in one go.
