REFLECTIONS MAY 2022 HUMBLED
HUMBLED
Being humbled is not a common or garden experience. In the
face of withering criticism of our behaviour it is even rarer, criticism is
more likely to produce shame, humiliation, remorse, even anger, whilst being humbled
is suggestive of a certain nobility of spirit, a sense of having a true grasp
of one’s moral dimensions. I have recently felt humbled by the Ukrainians
courage and resolve to fight against the unprovoked attack on their Republic. This
sense of humility is born out of an awareness of one’s own lack of courage, one’s
own shortcomings.
Which brings us to the spectacle of Boris Johnson appearing
in the House of commons after the publication of the Sue Gray report. Johnson said
that he was humbled. Now he knows of the word, but it is a term like infinity,
or a million light years, a word without concrete meaning for him. Of course, he
was not humbled, he was not even ashamed, though ashamed would have been
the more appropriate word. He was instead drunk, as he constantly is, on
hubris. Johnson is a ‘hubrisholic’ if I might coin such a word. He knew he
could brag and bully this one out, as illustrated by his tone-deaf jibe of ‘beer
korma’ at the Labour leader. Even some of his frontbench colleagues winced at this.
He knew he had got away with it. And so, after a fashion he had. For
months he had asked his critics to wait until the Sue Gray report was presented.
Now that it was, it was time to shut up and move on. I am sure there was a relieved
drinks party, ‘wine time’ at number 10 on Friday.
That this will turn out to be a pyric victory I have no
doubt. The instinct for self-preservation among Tory backbenchers, though
befuddled, bewildered and bemused as they are, have a sense of imminent,
possibly terminal danger he will be gone by Christmas. The only question is who
will replace him.
On Thursday to see the London Children’s Ballet production
of Anne of Green Gables. A truly mesmerising event. Magic was spun, especially
by the 13yr old playing Anne.
The story is itself charming, dominated by the precocious and winsome Anne. Genuine cruelty is not ducked, and Anne’s refuses to be cowed by bullying adults. It is a complex story with a lot hanging on Anne’s overflowing and effusive language. So, I wondered how this would be managed through the medium of dance. It all rested on the shoulders of the girl playing Anne, who managed to capture Anne’s eccentricity, precocious impudence, and sheer force of character in sweeps and swirls, in expressive postures and delightful twists and turns. It was a remarkable performance for one so young. Destined for wonderful things, I wondered though how such a magic performance would live on in her life? To create such magic is given to few.
