The Campbell Academy Blog (85)

The beginning of the start

Louise and I at work had a meeting last week, one of those lovely meetings at one o'clock on a Friday when there is no stress or pressure to finish things.

We were chatting about many things, not least the state of the world and the state of the UK and the state of the airports and what happened in Israel and everything else.

And so, I asked her what she thought about things, and she said, "It looks like the beginning of the end." I thought for a moment, then realised that the beginning of one person's end is the beginning of another person's start.

And so, the beginning of the start is the start of something new, which always comes after something old when it is done and finished.

And so, in Louise's eyes, she was talking about the collapse of the West, but in other people's eyes, it's the rise of something else.

We are brought up in a goldfish bowl; our attitudes and values are force-fed down our throats so that any deviation from this seems impossible to take or stomach, but at times, we have to look at what other people do and take the best bits of that and leave the worst behind until we get to a better place.

And so, in my Western upbringing, as a white guy from the West of Scotland, I would look at some of the Arab countries and think, 'I don't like the way they do that or this or what they worship or what they believe' but if the people there are satisfied and happy with what they do (and I'm sure many are) then we should be able to take the good bits and leave the bits behind that we don't, that's what values are for.

And so, as we were having that discussion, an email popped in from one of my patients who has been working for some years on the Neom project and who sends me updates about every three months in video form of the stuff that's going on in the new city in Saudi Arabia, which is extraordinary.

It's built within the Neom Business Enterprise Zone, which is almost the size of Belgium. Don't make me repeat that, but it is that big.

What you're looking at with Neom is the ambition to change how we live and work, and interact in a way that no one has ever seen before.

I think if you travel to London or even to the centre of Nottingham, you will realise that the design of our cities and their infrastructures are about to wear out. It's time to knock them down and build another one, but the only people brave enough to do that are people who many of us seem to want to rail against and criticise.

How about we watch the good things that other people are doing and learn from that instead of sitting in an ivory tower (that seems to be falling apart) judging?

And so the beginning of our end might be the beginning of someone else's start, but perhaps that is just a good way to look at life in general.