My Word | Always look for the sparkle amid the gloom

In this creeping sea of conflict and plastic, it’s important to look for the good stuff and not be distracted by ugliness.

On Monday morning, I was going to stay indoors because the weather map on my phone said a big rain dump was going to hit at 9am. This was not good news for anyone who enjoys going into the bush with a paintbrush and a canvas.

However, a battle-hardened painter scoffed down the phone at me and said there was a good spot down behind the cemetery with a spectacular fish ladder and plenty of shelter if things got damp. There might even be a resting spot in the cemetery.

So I went anyway, and I was glad I did, because I did a painting of an old tree hanging on to the edge of the crumbling bank. I knew how it felt, so I put all my feelings of empathy and struggle into that painting.

For complementary colour balance, I’m also putting a red Coca Cola can in the grass and some faded blue fishing lines in the trees. The veteran painter tells me I must always look for the story in the painting.

I’m saving the fish ladder for a shiny day with sparkle on the water, which the veteran painter assures me will make for a painting with more impact. It’s always about the sparkle, so I believe him.

Tuesday’s News front page carried a photo with a different sort of sparkle, despite the dull, humid weather.

The photo showed four confident, smiling young people who weren’t worried about any approaching storm.

The four duxes of our local schools looked out from the page and into their futures with plenty of twinkle and hope.

These are the faces of the generation who will deal with climate change, housing shortages, the rise of robots, more pandemics and threats of conflict.

Their picture said: “We are looking forward, and it’s going to be okay”.

It reminded me that we are actually living in the healthiest, safest, happiest and most prosperous times in mankind’s history.

Yes, there are wars, starvation and economic injustice. But our trials are nowhere near the severity of the struggle our ancestors faced.

To take one example — human beings are living longer lives than in any period of recorded history.

In 1800, no country in the world had an average life expectancy of more than 40.

In 2015, the average life expectancy was 71.4 years and rising. Even those in developing countries in Africa and Asia are living longer and happier lives than they were 200 years ago.

These are figures from academic Steven Pinker’s book Enlightenment Now.

Of course, we live in one of the wealthiest and safest countries in the world, but the data shows that in every country of the globe, people are healthier, safer and wealthier than they ever were.

If you ‘doom scroll’ and live by algorithms, headlines and the warnings of preachers, all this is nonsense. We are heading for disaster.

But if you look at those four smiling faces on Tuesday’s front page and look to the battle-hardened painters for lessons on balance and complementary colours, then things are not so bad.

And the storm always passes.