The Pessimism and Occasional Optimism of Juvenile Adulthood

The European Adventure I referred to in my previous article has taken us through France, the Low Countries, Germany, and Denmark before reaching our final destination - Angsbacka in Sweden (Slightly north of Karlstadt for those of you wondering). We were there for a ‘No Mind’ festival, lasting a week with the theme centred around love. I want to avoid the use of generalisations so I’m going to refrain from using the term ‘hippie’. Also, ‘hippie’ carries connotations of long straggly hair and drugs and Angsbacka has a strict zero tolerance policy - on drugs not straggly hair. Based on my experience of the No Mind festival,  I want to express my feelings towards this culture and where it fits in in this modern world and what future it has. So here goes nothing... One of the great satisfactions of Angsbacka was the openness. Every day for an hour there was the chance to open up and share your feelings or accounts with both friends and strangers all whilst maintaining a con...

I’m going to attempt to write this entire post whilst both on a train and waiting at the Arrivals lounge for my beloved father, who for the rest of this article, I will affectionately refer to as ‘Dad’. I want to discuss, rather than the transport service I’m experiencing on this muggy July evening, the lives and mindsets of the people on the train. As the name suggests, public transport encompasses people from many different walks of life who are being transported to varying locations for even more varied purposes. It is the mannerisms of the people I witness on this train which fascinate me. This train to Stansted Airport from Birmingham was very busy, unexpected for me as I assumed a train in the late evening would be largely devoid of the purposeful workers with tasks to complete and errands to tick off. I assumed this train would contain a mere handful of the semi-retired heading to the airport for a holidaying adventure before the youth would finish their education and finish any...