I like to think they were just re-enacting that time in the long distant past, when druids graffitied it with the message “ people called ‘Romanes’ they go the house”
Love this, couldn't have said any of it better myself!
Also, this: "I spent the first two decades of my life being terrified of nuclear war, but when at last it didn’t happen, I gave up worrying about the end of the world altogether. I decided it wasn’t my problem anymore." YES. A few years ago, somewhere online I saw someone lamenting that no generation has ever had to deal with the looming end of the world like Gen Z and when someone pointed out that not only did earlier generations survive "the food/air is going to run out/the people are going to overpopulate" and nuclear war, but that pretty much every generation as long as there have been generations have had more or less good reasons to think there was a fair chance the world was ending (World Wars I and II, anyone?), there was nothing particularly special about that. To which the other responded that yes BUT THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT THIS TIME THE WORLD IS REALLY REALLY REALLY GONNA END, SEE.
I mean, maybe it is, but there's not much I can do about it.
Anyway, on to Stonehenge... which I've never visited because I assumed that, as is often the case, heavily touristed places often feel like they've had all the magic leached out of them. But Newgrange in Ireland gets lots of tourism as well and it was not like that at all. It's incredible to touch the designs on the stone and the Neolithic people who carved it there feel SO close. Now I think I need to make a bit more effort to get to Stonehenge.
I thought Stonehenge was awe-inspiring and really well done, considering what a tourist attraction it is. You can still get up close to the stones in small groups at sunrise, but you need to book in advance for that. I love it and will definitely be back.
Yes. I'm pretty sure that most people throughout history have been faced with existential threats and it's really the human condition. Maybe part of growing up is learning to not take the end of the world too personally.
One thing that really changed my perspective was many years ago when my medieval studies professor pointed out that when Julian of Norwich wrote "All will be well and all will be well and all manner of things will be well," she was living through a schism in the Church, the Black Plague, and the Hundred Years' War. Sure, she had God on her side, so maybe the end of the world didn't look quite so bleak from her point of view, but still. It's a good reminder that whatever you're going through is not uniquely despair-inducing.
That's a good bit of perspective. Interestingly, more young people are taking up God than they have for a while. We probably need something like God in order to stop psychotically deluding ourselves that we're in control.
I want the TV series in which George and Esmeralda visit pagan sites across the UK while sampling and rating the gift shop cake.
Also... wankpuffins! 😄
On the Stonehenge vandalism: it's hurting the ordinary people most, not the Mr. Burns of the world that control and profit from oil companies. But you know, my guess is that dopey duo could end up having a great deal of bad luck in the future...
I enjoyed reading this. Had nuclear mushroom cloud nightmares as a kid and visited Stonehenge I think in 1978. Must have been just before the wankers with the orange paint showed up.
Your Raymond Briggs’s comment really made me laugh. I am tortured to this day by that cartoon. Just thinking of it again when I read your piece has made me feel sad, tight chested and nauseous all at once. Nothing I have seen since came close for the panic, darkness and terror it invoked in my young soul!!!
‘If only we could read the signs they left us, they would probably say something like, “watch out for the wankpuffins with orange paint, as they foretell the time of endings.”’
I was an adult by the time Threads came out, but did they let you watch it as a kid? I've a vague memory it was shown in schools? But maybe that was some other terrifying public information film about sheltering behind a plank of wood if the siren goes.
The wankpuffins 😂. They have completely lost their audience.
Indeed. Although tbh they lost me years ago.
They lost me when they disrupted the Chelsea Flower Show. Because obviously nothing says megalomaniacal planet raping as *checks notes* flowers.
They seem deeply misguided. If not fifth columnists.
I like to think they were just re-enacting that time in the long distant past, when druids graffitied it with the message “ people called ‘Romanes’ they go the house”
Haha could be!
Love this, couldn't have said any of it better myself!
Also, this: "I spent the first two decades of my life being terrified of nuclear war, but when at last it didn’t happen, I gave up worrying about the end of the world altogether. I decided it wasn’t my problem anymore." YES. A few years ago, somewhere online I saw someone lamenting that no generation has ever had to deal with the looming end of the world like Gen Z and when someone pointed out that not only did earlier generations survive "the food/air is going to run out/the people are going to overpopulate" and nuclear war, but that pretty much every generation as long as there have been generations have had more or less good reasons to think there was a fair chance the world was ending (World Wars I and II, anyone?), there was nothing particularly special about that. To which the other responded that yes BUT THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT THIS TIME THE WORLD IS REALLY REALLY REALLY GONNA END, SEE.
I mean, maybe it is, but there's not much I can do about it.
Anyway, on to Stonehenge... which I've never visited because I assumed that, as is often the case, heavily touristed places often feel like they've had all the magic leached out of them. But Newgrange in Ireland gets lots of tourism as well and it was not like that at all. It's incredible to touch the designs on the stone and the Neolithic people who carved it there feel SO close. Now I think I need to make a bit more effort to get to Stonehenge.
I thought Stonehenge was awe-inspiring and really well done, considering what a tourist attraction it is. You can still get up close to the stones in small groups at sunrise, but you need to book in advance for that. I love it and will definitely be back.
Yes. I'm pretty sure that most people throughout history have been faced with existential threats and it's really the human condition. Maybe part of growing up is learning to not take the end of the world too personally.
One thing that really changed my perspective was many years ago when my medieval studies professor pointed out that when Julian of Norwich wrote "All will be well and all will be well and all manner of things will be well," she was living through a schism in the Church, the Black Plague, and the Hundred Years' War. Sure, she had God on her side, so maybe the end of the world didn't look quite so bleak from her point of view, but still. It's a good reminder that whatever you're going through is not uniquely despair-inducing.
That's a good bit of perspective. Interestingly, more young people are taking up God than they have for a while. We probably need something like God in order to stop psychotically deluding ourselves that we're in control.
I want the TV series in which George and Esmeralda visit pagan sites across the UK while sampling and rating the gift shop cake.
Also... wankpuffins! 😄
On the Stonehenge vandalism: it's hurting the ordinary people most, not the Mr. Burns of the world that control and profit from oil companies. But you know, my guess is that dopey duo could end up having a great deal of bad luck in the future...
The stones will outlast us all.
I really hope that English Heritage don't decide to put the stones behind plexiglass or something awful like that. They do belong to us all.
Haha Esmerelda was a fleeting friend. Once the sandwiches and cake were gone, so was she! But I will happily eat cake by myself :)
You are quite lovely and I also want cake.
Aw you are too kind! And I also want cake.
I enjoyed reading this. Had nuclear mushroom cloud nightmares as a kid and visited Stonehenge I think in 1978. Must have been just before the wankers with the orange paint showed up.
Oh the orange paint wankers was just the other day. Maybe even yesterday? I've never been so quick off the mark before!
Yes the mushroom cloud nightmares... I had those too.
Your Raymond Briggs’s comment really made me laugh. I am tortured to this day by that cartoon. Just thinking of it again when I read your piece has made me feel sad, tight chested and nauseous all at once. Nothing I have seen since came close for the panic, darkness and terror it invoked in my young soul!!!
Same! It is one of the bleakest things I've ever read. Emotional damage! As the kids say.
‘If only we could read the signs they left us, they would probably say something like, “watch out for the wankpuffins with orange paint, as they foretell the time of endings.”’
You do make me laugh. Thank you!
No, thank you! That makes me happy to hear!
PS Threads, released in 1984, terrified my generation. Rewatched it a few years ago and it hasn’t lost its power.
Yep, that was utterly terrifying. That was two years after When the Wind Blows (which was turned into a film in 86.) They really piled it on!
Ah yeah, I’d forgotten they were so close together.
No let up! If you weren't having nightmares about nuclear winter then you weren't there, man!
I was an adult by the time Threads came out, but did they let you watch it as a kid? I've a vague memory it was shown in schools? But maybe that was some other terrifying public information film about sheltering behind a plank of wood if the siren goes.