It's one of my favourites, this one, one of my favourites for ages.
This will become embedded into what I talk about and how I talk about things going forward, and so the context is here.
I was visiting my wife's family on the twenty-ninth of December. We are very close to this part of the family, I've been for years and years and years, since way before we were married.
Alison has been very close to her aunt and uncle and her four cousins, literally like brothers, sisters and older brothers and older sisters.
One of the children, ‘the kids’, is an extremely intelligent, deep-thinking, clear-thinking young woman. I describe her as a young woman, but she's not so young in those terms anymore, but young woman compared to me.
This is a young woman whose pre-molar teeth I extracted as part of orthodontic treatment back when she was pretty much pre-teen. We have shared chats, thoughts, and conversations over decades now. There was a time when we always shared recommendations for books, but we seem to have lost that in the melee of life going forward.
I had a chance to catch up for a short period of time on the twenty-ninth of December.
She said something completely profound to me, which will stay with me for a long while. She lives in Cornwall, in a village with her partner and her two young daughters. She is a very wholesome individual who understands what is important in life, what makes you happy and unhappy. How to live the good life in the best possible way.
We were discussing the village cricket team, which her partner is part of. He wants to reinvigorate it, move it along. We talked for ages with a pair of them about the 80/20 rule, how 20% of people seem to do 80% of the work in these things, and if you can't accept that, then you have to move along, but that's how it always is.
We talked about how to make the cricket club better and how it's really good for adults, the youngsters, the community, everybody together, but it takes people putting their time in.
She told me that she'd read something recently which said the following
“Everyone wants to live in a village, but no one wants to be a villager.”
Stop and think about that for a minute and realise that everyone lives in a village, in your village.
Society only works if it exists. If it doesn't exist, there is no society, and then there's nothing.
There is no point in being rich when there is no one to buy anything from, there's no point in being on top of the status pile when the only person in the status pile is you.
There is no point in chasing anything else if there is nothing else.
Everyone wants the benefits of a coherent society, a place where it's possible to win if you try hard, work hard, use your intelligence or your talents in the best direction.
Everyone thinks they want the least well off or the downtrodden to be looked after.
Everyone thinks they want to feel safe.
Everyone wants us to live by the rule of law, whatever that's supposed to be, but of course, it only works if we subscribe to that.
Think back over the last 12 months or 2 years to all the times you've given of yourself and a way of yourself to something bigger and better than you.
If you can't think of too many times when you've done that, then try again, because if you don't want to be a villager, then that's fine, but you won't have a village.
Blog Post Number - 4401
Colin Campbell, Chris Barrow, and an intrepid group of dentists will be cycling across the plains of Tanzania from Kilimanjaro in early February 2026. If you would like to support the charity, Bridge to Aid, and this extraordinary challenge, please click here.
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