This is the title of our theme this year. It’s about our lives but it’s also very connected to the theatre with its entrances and exits.
I often think that life is about opening up and closing down. I’ll explain what I mean. When you were young there came a time when you went, on your own, beyond the end of the road, maybe to the shop and from that point onwards your life became bigger and bigger expansions. I remember when I was about 10, I liked playing chess and one day I discovered there was a chess day in the Christmas holidays. This involved getting two buses and going to a place where I knew nobody, so it was a big deal for me. The day came and overnight snow had come down so it would have been easy to bale out. But something made me follow through. I went, I enjoyed it and got a real sense of achievement and self-belief. I’ve tried to carry that spirit of adventure with me.
At the other end, I’m struck by how life comes in on itself again. How elderly people begin not to go out so much so that their journeys are in reverse to childhood. The end of the road becomes just the house, then just downstairs until maybe it is just a chair and a bed that they visit.
In between those extremes, life is full of openings up and closings down – more arrivals and more departures. Births, marriages, children, retirements, grandchildren and so on.
Last week we had our annual video competition and one of the winners was from the Isle of Wight. I think they perfectly captured this journey through life with its constant change and flow from one event to another. They are always talking about knowing yourself but I also think it’s about “nowing” yourself – enjoying every moment as it comes and goes and getting the most you can from everything you do.
