And a happy St George's Day to you. But what's it all about? As a nation we seem to struggle with celebrations of our identity, veering from complete indifference about the whole affair to using the flag of St George as a banner under which all manner of vile prejudices can be unleashed. Me? I'm just a lawnmower, you can tell me by the way I walk. That's from a pre-Phil Collins Genesis and just popped into my head. I've never taken acid (so far as I know), but sometimes I just get flashbacks.
Anyway, back to St George, what should we do about him and his day? Well, first of all completely and utterly ignore the fact that he almost certainly never came anywhere near England. And then, in the manner of Ian Dury, look for Reasons To Be Cheerful. So here are things I think we could reasonably take some pride in, even if we've had no hand in their creation. In no particular order: good beer, Shakespeare, a wonderfully flexible language, tea-drinking, good food, beautiful countryside, public libraries, cakes, kindness, trips to the seaside, dogs, washing lines, You've Been Framed, football, cricket, stamps, newspapers, poetry, roses and shyness.
I am not claiming that these are all English or that some overbearing sense of pride should accompany all of them, but is it so wrong to take some pleasure in these things? I don't think so and while I know that we're all hurtling headlong towards the grave and oblivion, it's not necessarily utterly complacent to enjoy what we've got, while we've got it. One last thing, I am well aware that it is easy to find examples of things in that list that can be truly horrid, but maybe, just for one day, we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves.
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