John’s Notes: Parish Magazines editorial, June 2018
The Barnsley writer, wit, and raconteur Ian McMillan lives what he calls a ‘peripatetic word-driven lifestyle’ (he was onstage at Clapham Village Hall on 6th June). A consequence of this is that he wakes up in lots of different hotel rooms and the only fixed point of reference he has is his old cheap alarm clock which ‘not only tells me the time but somehow … informs me exactly where I am’, as it reminds him of where he was when he set it the night before.
‘Where am I?’ is an existential question we may not often consciously consider, especially if we’re rooted in the same place we’ve been for many years. It’s related to another question, ‘Who am I?’ which again we generally keep in the background (Ian McMillan chews it over in his book Neither Nowt Nor Summat: In Search of the Meaning of Yorkshire, which is equally his struggle with the question, ‘Am I Yorkshire enough’?). But there are times when such questions surface, and maybe we’re living through such a time in our society just now.
Commentator David Goodhart suggests that the EU referendum revealed that British society is divided into two ‘tribes’: ‘Anywheres’ and ‘Somewheres’. Anywheres are people often on the move who base their sense of identity on their achievements, whilst Somewheres identify more with place and background; what most distresses them is the loss of a sense of community and roots. Goodhart connects ‘Remainers' and ‘Leavers’ with these two categories.
I don’t think the ‘two tribes’ idea is too helpful, or realistic, as I suspect there’s something of the Anywhere and Somewhere in each of us. I’m drawn to this theme by my recent move – I’m an ofcumden, but one feeling a sense of homecoming in returning north, renewing acquaintance with once-familiar places, sensing that it’s the ‘Somewhere’ in me which has driven this determination to strengthen and deepen these northern roots. I think that a sense of place is important to Anywheres (that’s why professional couples want to return to the ‘family church’ for their wedding, or Christenings). And YFC awards events show how – justly – proud local, rooted Somewheres are in their achievements too. We’re more complex people than the mainstream Brexit discussion makes us out to be.
I’m always struck by how village life manages to bring together people of different kinds, from different backgrounds, the Anywheres and the Somewheres, united by an appreciation of ‘where we are’ and working out how to live and flourish together. In just one example I’m impressed by those volunteers who in recent years have been getting our villages wired for high-speed broadband: strategists, techies and diggers-of-holes, lifetime locals and recent incomers, united in a common task – a great achievement. When we decide to build something together, and stop seeing each other as merely leavers or remainers, anywheres or somewheres, insiders or outsiders, the result is community.
