Her father was a young farmer, who had an accountancy degree and was now studying to be a doctor .He, like me, was handing out cards for independants .
His man was Alex Dyson the independent and he , much better than me, knew that finding good work was very very hard for many young people and that my chosen party (for the day )was full of the far too comfortables.
I always say ' a pox on all the parties ' but I will choose one of them !
He didn't know ( because we didn't have enough time) that the young's desire for hope in good work ( and change from the comfortable indifference of too many conservatives) was mine also ..and my reason for being there.You don't actually have to have a good job , a partner ( i think we need at least one friend ) or lots of money to be happy as children know . What I want them to know is that YOUR attitude ( including repenting ( think I Need to think "sorry" ) about your own errors, arrogance , pushing shoving and blindness ) is everything . Even bullies need to see how to make real friends.
As a public servant aware of the corruption that comes with the comforts of power, regular wages and high margins, I was aware that real change is the only way to get away from the cancer of that growth inside the power houses( for a time at least ).
Any of us who ever had the privilege of keeping the attention of group of young people know it to be the greatest of privilege's ( cf being in parliament with all those tired minds would not be fun ) like the best of days and the worst of days ( if you are having trouble with the worst , watch Dickens on BBC)
Humans don't listen well, so why would anyone ever take on the job of changing people's minds ?
Any of us who have had parents know what dinosaur's they can seem to be, with their grumpy moods and endless repeats of their deep cynicism and worry . "You told me that before" they can rightly say !
The people on the hustings at the weekend thankfully didn't know that I was the man pictured directly above, so we had lots of interesting , if brief interactions over our passions ( with hustlers its a great place to discuss things when not too many people pass through ) and genuine thank yous from passersby for suggestions about what options there were on the long Senate paper . Most, of course don't want or need your advice, but are wonderfully polite and pleasant. A few do because the senate paper is so long and the local independants don't normally stand out.
Believe it or not , I remain a happily paid up member of the dinosaur club because conservation ( yes I normally vote conservative ) is clearly the leader; the soundest ecological world view; That's what collects up the surplus of the good times, so we have something to eat in the bad times.
As that great parable says the son ( the prodigal son ) thinks he knows a better way until he sees the city lights, experiences the waste and unsustainability, and if he is repentant , matures in understanding of how the superficial view starves the soul of real food.
It's always good too to greet fellow farmers /local producers in the sunshine , knowing that while the city may have the numbers, we have a deep unspoken agreement about what actually works in the ecology of real life and we will survive and actually thrive the rebellion prone children's attempt to raise merry hell with the family fortunes or worse, play pretend god in the universe .
What a privilege it was to spend a few hours with someone who knew from his own experience on the farm all the essentials and with his daughter could lead our district in the future in ways that were sustainable .
What an even greater inspiration it was to see that that family was building the competencies ( despite struggling to find proper paid work like most young people our day ) so that both father and daughter would have something deep and sustainable to offer to the assembly of self preoccupied minds that will sit in front of them and make their life hell, from time to time.
