During this Easter break from the routines of school life, I’ve managed at last to catch up on some private reading and reconnect with what’s happening in the wider world.
My goodness, what a sobering contrast it presents. With the terrifying war continuing to grind on in Ukraine and the Middle East now in flames following the choice of Trump and Netanyahu to take on Iran and their allies, and our own governments seemingly losing the plot on more local matters by the day, it does the heart good to see that humans are heading back to the Moon once more.
I’m reminded how, in the bleak days of the Vietnam War, two quite different forces helped lift the spirits of a troubled age: NASA’s audacious mission to put man on the Moon, and the creative, artistic flowering of the Sixties that did so much to emancipate minds and societies across the globe.
Today, too, we are seeing voices of reason re-emerging to recentre us. Figures like Germaine Greer and J.K. Rowling have stood firm in reminding society of a simple biological truth: that a child’s sex is determined at birth. In an age of fashionable confusion, their clarity helps anchor us back to material reality rather than ideology.
Alongside them, the sharp humour of Ricky Gervais has cut through the noise, poking fun at the modern explosion of adults catastrophising their own lives — and those of their children — around mental illness and anxiety. With a wry eye, he helps us recentralise around what it actually means to be human: imperfect, resilient, and far more robust than today’s therapeutic culture often suggests.
Perhaps that’s how it has always been. When the headlines grow dark and the outlook feels heavy, we need both wonder and imagination — rockets climbing toward the stars, songs, stories and ideas that set the soul free, and clear voices that call us back to biological and psychological reality. In such times, exploration, creativity, and plain speaking are not luxuries; they are lifelines. And right now, it feels quietly reassuring to be reminded that we remain capable of all three.