Vulnerability an Underestimated Trait

We watch CNN in the mornings in the kitchen of our renovated cowshed here in Switzerland.  CNN echoes around these 16th century walls filled with boulders which are stuck together with poor man’s cement - cow poo mixed with straw and milk - okay officially it is called la chaux, a lime based precursor to cement, but my version is better.

We have since re-dug the shed’s foundations (actually there weren’t any it was just sort of plonked down on the soil: a hay loft, stalls for 30 cows and a dwelling for the farmer).  The boulders that make up the walls were presumably taken from the river that runs down in the valley.  The very idea of this fires up my imagination as I picture this little house going up stone by stone, the young farmer with perhaps a rosy-cheeked wife and a few bare footed urchin children, excitedly running around as he toils.  It is a vicarious connection with these long gone souls, sitting as I do today amongst the very same boulders which protect my family as they protected his.  Wifi may now bounce off these walls but the round boulders still stick out in places, tribute to the sweat and muscle strain of that young farmer’s quest for shelter. 

WE huddle around the kitchen bar and watch CNN because for Sophie-G., the dancer and musician of the family this is the only time she can learn anything about the world and is fed up of being constantly shown up at school when it comes to tests on world leaders, events etc.  (She takes after her maternal grandmother in this respect.  Having watched the footage of that terrible Boxing Day my mother asked at dinner.

“So who are these Tsunami people and what do they believe in?”).

No more sherry for you. 

This morning watching CNN, we were surprised to see that the likeable chappie Don Ridell with the cartoon character face – when I was last in line for noses he was bringing up the rear at the jaw counter – who usually breathes life into the sports section, had been promoted to main presenter and we all agreed how happy we were for him.  He looked so chuffed in his yellow tie.

“I like him ’cos he’s always making mistakes and is sometimes nervous and hasn’t a clue what to say,” grunts Ollie slumped on his bar stool.

“He looks like Fred from the Flintstones,” says Sophie-G. ”Ahhhh look how happy he is, so proud to be reading THE NEWS”.

        Our kind of guy, anti-hero Don Ridell

My uneven walls show their history, their humble beginnings and their precarious foundations but as such they add a timeless beauty, a stoicism and a sense of belonging for those who live here.  Likewise Don with his off days, brain freezes and blunders breathes humanity into the CNN news and will have a long and successful career.   We like him because he is just like us.

It takes courage to show vulnerability, to not plaster over the imperfections, but it is an honest antidote to the ubiquitous bravado that leaves an ugly, stale patina everywhere it goes and prevents us from connecting with each other which, after all, is what it is all about no?