What I do is me

Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote
" As king fishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves -- goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came."


While I don't want to get too profound about it all (after all, there's a lot about Hopkins that is, to my mind, just a little odd) I do like the last line "What I do is me: for that I came".  So this blog is aobut what I do, because what I do is me, and, in some ways I can say for this I came.(And, yes, I know there is a second verse, but we aren't going into that here).

Other people got to "As Kingfishers Catch Fire" before me - especially Rumer Godden - so I will be pleased to take the second part "Dragonflies draw flame".  And anyway, I rather prefer second things to first things.  It's said that nobody remembers who came second.  Well, more fool nobody, I say, because second is very good.   I found out recently that my father has striven throughout his life to be second.  It's a worthy aspiration - it takes a lot of effort to come second, and second means very good indeed, but without the terrifying and unnecessry baggage of first.  Never let perfection be the enemy of the good. In fact, second may be the best place.  There's a lot more space for living and doing in the lives of people who aim for second.  Kingfishers are magnificent.  I love them. But the flash of a dragonfly is something too.

I want to share cycling thoughts, and I want it to be about sign language thoughts and other things I do that make me me but that might be of interest to others.  Alliteratively, it can be about bicycles, BSL and bread-baking. And it can be about things that don't begin with B too.