In the hills and valleys

There's really only one way for an antisocial (and ambulatory) weirdo to relax, and that's to go out into the hills, into the high country, and walk for forever. Out there you can simply be yourself, explore the limits of who that is, and enjoy the sights. The deepest thoughts can come from the most ridiculous pursuits and it's not uncommon for a long hike to simplify all the problems in your life, even if the bug bites do cascade so swiftly.

These last few weeks in Aberystwyth, perhaps sadly the last ever, have really prompted a desire to explore the area as never before and so Saturdays have been spent in many a mostly random walk into the outback of Ceredigion, with only a map and a battered bucket of hope for companionship. The wild, wild trails and sedate bridleways have been lovely, replete with scenic splendour and the fear that only emerges when the paranoid part of the brain remembers the term 'grass snake'. Treks through tall fields can become so unnecessarily fraught at times! Apart from the snakes, it's lovely to pick a direction and walk.

The greatest aspect of a long ramble or hike in the country is the freedom of the solitude. You can literally do anything, except possibly in the highest of summer when other walkers could be around every corner! That freedom is the greatest missing liberty of modern life, a fascinating and thrilling glimpse of what must have been commonplace hundreds of years ago. Or would it have been? Could it be that in times gone by people were far more closely welded in identity to their jobs? Held in their place by fear of employer/family persecution or dissatisfaction just as many people are now? Or was it a commonplace never to even be mentioned, such a liberty literally being the only common recreational pursuit to be had?

Liberty in the purest sense is something very few people have experienced. In many ways the very concept contradicts the idea of the society, which demands that every individual plays its part and takes a share of the responsibility. Hence the people most at liberty are the ones most out of line with society, the most nonconformist and the most exasperated the conventions of regular life. We can taste liberty though, take a walk into the wild along the nearest road and discover what lies across yonder hill (rights of way permitting). For a few hours you can sing, and twirl and think the happiest and silliest thoughts of all. It's the opportunity we all have if we only choose to use it.

To the high country!

O.

PS Tim Burton's 'Batman' is 25 years old today. Yes, we've had twenty five years of Alex Knox to date! Oh, whatever happened to Knox anyway? Was he killed by an explosive penguin or clubbed to death by a feminist photographer? We'll never know. Good movie, apart from all the bits with the Joker, and of course it's Michael Keaton for the win!