I’m 42 and live in Bath with my wife and two young children, both of whom have been wonderful sources of sleep deprivation, as well as telling me daily which novelty cake they require me to make for their next birthday. I’m a governor for three primary schools and work for my local council doing a job that enables me to fit in my family’s needs, which seem to consist of combining being a taxi driver with buying hair accessories. One of my greatest successes as a father is that my children’s music of choice in the car is Jack White not The Wheels on the Bus.
I started reading the Guardian over 20 years ago when I was at university. It was the best source of objective journalism on environmental issues (and frankly still is), which was the focus of my degree and much of my thinking. The paper matched and matches my international outlook and appreciation of diversity of thought and people. Instead of ski and beach holidays I went on humanitarian aid runs to refugee camps in the former Yugoslavia and was only held at gunpoint once. I also got off a speeding ticket in Romania due to the policeman sharing a dislike of the Spice Girls.
My life now isn’t conducive to reading a paper so the Guardian’s various Twitter accounts are my route to satisfying my thirst for knowledge and others’ thoughts about the world beyond my limited reach. My attitude to life is that there is much more I don’t know than I do know, more things I can learn than teach. Sure, I have opinions and thoughts about pretty much every issue around but try to challenge them, my preconceptions and accidental prejudices. I’ve been doing a lot of that while I have been trying to discern whether to be ordained as a Church of England priest.
It concerns me, though, that too often the media likes simplistic black and white arguments, and will mostly invite people at the extremes of an argument to debate. Guardian writers mostly avoid this, but when a writer declares that every thought that differs from their own is contemptible it makes me despair at how wrong and unhelpful they are.
A major hope for me is our society becoming one in which we can safely debate and discuss issues; extend our understanding of those different from us in type or thinking; and learn to disagree with respect, rather than descend into kneejerk shootouts of abuse and vitriol.
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