Juneathon 2012 Day 22 -Linking landscape and tax
Walk 1 mile, Time - 20min, Weather - very, very blowy
Today was my last day by the coast and I did the bare minimum. It was blowing a gale and I preferred to watch from a place of shelter. Going out had a moment of "Wow this is so windy, isn't it fun just trying to stand upright!" but after a time the pleasure palled. It was so windy in one spot I couldn't take a photo because I couldn't keep my camera still: "that's it" I thought "I give up".
Nevertheless I managed to take some pictures of these white chalk cliffs,which are, to me, emblematic of England. When I see them, either first hand or in some representation I think of a rich landscape and culture. It is small wonder that many writers and artists have chosen to live here. Two days ago I was thinking of this when talking of Frank Bridge and the effect the landscape had on his music. Today I was also reminded of it when reading something JK Rowling said about tax:
I chose to remain a domiciled tax payer for a couple of reasons. The main one was that I wanted my children to grow up where I grew up, to have proper roots in a culture as old and magnificent as Britain's; to be citizens, with everything that implies, of a real country, not free-floating expats, living in the limbo of some tax haven and associating only with the children of similarly greedy tax exiles. A second reason was that I am indebted to the welfare state... When my life hit rock bottom, that safety net, threadbare though it had become under John Major, was there to break the fall."
Having roots in an old and magnificent culture is an important part of any individual's identity. Looking at this landscape you can see how this works.
P.S. my respect for JK Rowling, which was already quite high, went up a couple of notches on reading that quote.
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