Life Ties
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"They've been hanging around my neck all my life." With all the constraints of life, John finds an ingenious way of expressing himself.
Transcript
"What is it with ties? They've been hanging around my neck all my life. I seem to have every colour, shape and size. They're the lines and patterns of my life.
They're what I've become.
Take legs-eleven here. Remember the Second Augustan Legion who hot-collared it to Caerleon - probably before your time. The point is the legion and I share the same birthday - the 23rd of September, so that's why it slipped in.
All these ties. They're emotional flags I knot around my neck - for blue-Mondays: red-Tuesdays; broken-the-back-Wednesdays and ice-chilled-Thursdays ... and for Friday, my poets tie. It helps me express what I think about work at the end of the week. Push off early, tomorrow's Saturday. That's one interpretation, maybe yours is different.
Now that I am older, I won't be wearing as much purple as the poet suggests. It might be nice to sit on the pavement and run my stick along the public railings or learn to spit.
But, I'm doing none of that. I'm staging my own silent revolution - bringing brightness and colour back into my life - banishing the stripe and the paisley to the office spin. There's one tie I'll never buy and that's black.
When my mother died I wore red at her funeral. She would have liked that. She was a happy person - full of colour - who was never tied to life's dark corners."
An interview with the author
Please tell us about yourself.
As a lad I was always on the move. I attended about 12 - 14 schools. When my father died when I was 13, I went to school in Northern Ireland. I decided to teach in 1971 and hope to retire in about three years time. My passion is for poetry and writing. Next year, I hope to be a tutor for creative writing.
What's your story about?
My story is about the blunting of ambition. Its age set defiance that takes a dig against conventional values. It's an assertion of the individual over the system.
I say what I think and feel today. I'm not concerned about popularity or what various institution may or may not want people to believe. Life isn't a rehearsal. You have to decide what has true 'value' to you and if this means not complying, then do it!
What did you find the most rewarding about the workshop?
I like creative people. I enjoy ides. I like the opportunity to be expressive. It was another avenue for writing.
Your comments
"John boy - you've echoed my sentiments. Why on earth wear a bloody tie in the hot and dry or hot and humid atmosphere of this tropic dust bowl is beyond me. Yet, everyday on my journey to work I see both Thai and foreigner uncomfortably running a finger along a Thai tied neck, all in the cause of convention. Why can't they wait until they get to the office to don these useless bits of rag? The triumph of the west is not its technology, its literature, its enterprise, its languages, or its gift of sport. The triumph of the west is the bloody necktie."
John Howe, Bangkok, Thailand.
