Valuing the Wild(e)

Today I stumbled across this quotation in the environment – on board Word on the Water, the London book barge moored between King’s Cross and Islington. One of London’s treasures with its open fire and brilliant playlist providing a cool, laid-back soundtrack to this wintery, watery corner of the city.

I recently saw a rather overwrought production of Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ in St Martin’s Lane, featuring Stephen Fry, who played Wilde in the eponymous 1997 movie. It slightly dented my love of Oscar but this quote reverses that to some degree. Appreciating Beauty in the world is one of life’s great pleasures. I do believe Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so a work of graffiti along the canal is as good a source as the refined architecture in the back streets of Islington or a delightful tall, thin beer glass.

Finding beautiful meanings in such sights and objects is particularly the realm of artists and the artistically minded. Much though I appreciate such cultivated tastes and sensibilities I also value the wild and the raw. Both Art and Nature are vital Simple Pleasures and fortunately in this country we have free access to both in abundance.