The Aardvark Blog

We will endure, our testament is written in stone
19/09/2020

I awoke this morning to the news that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had passed yesterday, and to a succession of headlines outlining how bad things have gotten in the UK. It is hard to stay chipper without either a) starting to seem as if one is not really paying attention, or b) sounding like the entertainment director on the Titanic.

But the thing I want to say this morning is that despite the constant bad news and the spirit of divisiveness that seems to pervade all public discourse across the western world,we will endure. Our testament may be written on paper and in notes that reverberate through the air, but ultimately it is written in stone because it is written in our hearts.

My father, when he marched towards the battle of Kohima with the Worcestershire Regiment in 1944, was a young man in his early twenties. He was going to fight and in all probability die thousands of miles from home on the Indian/Burmese border, but from the diary excerpts that Fergal Keane includes in his book on the battle, he was still awestruck by the sights and peoples he was meeting on the way. However bleak things become, we are still forced to confront the wonders that surround us.

In the last week I have discussed her forthcoming book 'Lev's Violin' with author Helena Attlee (it's going to be absolutely fab), heard music that another customer had made in his home studio in Brighton, and discussed any number of favourite books with customers who ranged in age from 10 years old to those in their 80's. Culture is our only shield and it is always there for us to pick up whenever we need it.

There are new live concerts coming up in the Wigmore Hall, any number of new wonderful recordings being released every day, and over the last couple of weeks the publishing industry has released more titles than ever before. A friend of mine whom I met whilst walking the dog last week told me that his son had had a sell-out exhibition in Hay that had happened purely online. How incredible that a group of people would buy paintings on faith and have them shipped across the country to them. Art is that powerful and our need for it is that great.

I am so excited about some of the new titles that are coming into the shop and even if we are forced to close again they will be there for customers who can call, email or search our website. Running a bookshop in the depths of the countryside I am a long way from the noise and sounds of the cities where so many conflicts (political and medical) are currently taking place, but even here, we hear the sound and fury and the beginnings of despair.

So whatever happens and whatever steps we are all forced to take, let me end by saying again - our culture is our only shield. Use it every day, it is there for you to do everything from cheering you up, to making bad personal news seem endurable. For reasons that are too singular and personal to go into, the last few months have sometimes been pretty tough for the aardvarks. Strangely, business  has been largely all right, but dealing with medical stuff at the moment is extra hard. Through all of these days I have endured because I have held onto a few things that make sense to me. And they are again: that our culture is our only shield, and that our testament as a generation, as a species and as individuals is written in stone, and will endure because it is always written in our hearts with a pen dipped in our soul.