The Far Green Country

No … not the rather splendid ‘Faith No More‘ track…

I don’t know if it was just the time of year (just after Christmas), the book I was reading (Brian Sibley’s inspirational biography of director Peter Jackson), or some other factor(s) that were the cause, but I spent a couple of days around the new year with an unaccountable yearning to change the direction of my life. Sometimes the feelings were so strong that I was on the verge of tears. I was thinking to myself: What if I had done this differently? What if I hadn’t taken that job? Thoughts like that…

Now I had of course heard the term ‘Mid-Life Crisis’ but really didn’t know it meant, so, of course, I googled it and found this:

• Discontent with life and/or the lifestyle that may have provided happiness for many years
• Boredom with things/people that have hitherto held great interest and dominated your life
• Feeling adventurous and wanting to do something completely different
• Questioning the meaning of life, and the validity of decisions clearly and easily made years before
• Confusion about who you are, or where your life is going.

… which pretty much summed up how I was feeling. So, what to do? Anybody had a similar experience?

This is it … my first post. I really should have something to say here, now that I’ve gone to all the trouble of setting up this blog … ummm…

I suppose I could start by asking the question: Why is this blog called ‘The Far Green Country’? Mostly because of the reference made in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy which has always appealed to me … the “far green country under a swift sunrise” is a desciption of the place the other side of death.

Also, as an Englander, I’ve always liked the line from William Blake’s poem ’Jerusalem’:

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.