Chaser of lost causes

When I still used Twitter I had said that I was a chaser of lost causes in my profile. I was half joking of course and had meant that many of the things that I wanted to see change in the world were very unlikely to happen. Sure enough very few of them have but I can keep trying.

I no longer use Twitter, or whatever it is called now, yet I am still trying to do things that turn out to be impossible. Since I have retired I have turned my attention to a number of things to occupy my time and my mind. Two stand out for me at the moment: a challenge to read a book by an author from every country in the world and; an attempt to walk the length of the river Wansbeck from mouth to source.

Both of these may seem to be mildly challenging yet easily doable until you get down to brass tacks.

Take the reading challenge as a start. On paper (no pun intended) it should be reasonably easy to find the books and work my way through them. I’m doing quite well so far, I’m on number 87 out of 195, yet there are some obstacles to overcome. Firstly, it is quite hard to identify where an author is born, the information is not always available and over time national boundaries have changed. Indeed new countries have been created and others are lost. Secondly, getting books is not always easy. Not all have been translated into English, or another language that I can read and those that have are sometimes prohibitively expensive. Thirdly, some countries have a spoken rather than a written tradition. Tuvalu, for example, has only one recognised published author. The kicker though is the Vatican City. Despite there being around 600 people born there, there have been none in the last 90 odd years and there have been no recognised native authors. I never thought about it when I started but this means that my challenge is actually an impossible task.

The walking challenge is not much better. When the river is near its mouth and when it is in a town there is usually a path along its banks. Walking the river there is easy enough but when you get away from the towns and into the country the land along the banks is usually privately owned farm land. River paths simply don’t exist, after all which idiots other than me would want to walk along them. In reality then, I can walk the length of the river but not along the river, unless I walk in the water. My original plan was to kayak its length but that may have proved even more ridiculous. Still, I am persevering as these lessons are simply a part of life’s rich tapestry.

So it is true, I am a chaser of lost causes. Never mind though, I have set myself these challenges and they are my rules, ones that are clearly made to be broken.