Two Seated Men Drinking Beer
(Copyright http://www.circaimages.com) My father gave me one piece of advice as an adult. It came completely out of the blue. We were just sitting there, not saying all that much, when he just blurted it out.

Whilst there must be volumes he handed down in my childhood and teenage years, somehow they are lost to me; either lying hastily discarded, as is the wont of all teenagers, or all too readily assimilated, moulded into my character without any awareness of its source.

At the age of 26 it seemed rather shocking, coming as it did from a man who worked the same piece of land for nigh on 45 years. I had never imagined him vulnerable or discontent with the life that he had carved out for himself. Did these words, simple enough, conceal an inner life richer than I had hereto imagined? Doubts? Regrets?…