ACHIEVEMENT
At last! The final book in my Three Lives Trilogy is published. FULL CIRCLE is now available from Amazon. It has been a difficult birth, more difficult than the other two. There seemed to bhe a lot of problems in getting it finished and available, first with the formatting and then with the UK page of Amazon. For this reason I didn’t really feel any particular sense of achievement when the publication day came round, more a sense of relief that it was finally out there.
I think I might feel I have achieved something if I manage to get it marketed and selling. And of course, good reviews will always help.
One of the first reactions I had on the day of publication, was an Email from an old friend saying, “Well done – what an achievement” – and this got me thinking about what that really meant.
All last week I was watching the Invictus Games. It filled me with a sense of awe, admiration and wonder. Those taking part certainly had achieved great things – sometimes beyond all comprehension. It made very emotional viewing. I don’t usually take a great interest in athletics but this was something quite different. It wasn’t really about winning or losing but more a matter of overcoming overwhelming odds, whether physical or mental.
I hope Prince Harry is proud of himself too, because he also has achieved something remarkable. We all watched him through his turbulent childhood and the many years of his youth, behaving rather like his ancestor the dissolute Prince Harry in Shakespeare’s “Henry 1V”. That Prince Harry underwent a total transformation at the end of the play, when after the death of his father he became Henry V.
From what I can gather the present Prince Harry had a similar ‘road to Damascus moment’ when he travelled back from Afghanistan with three terribly wounded servicemen. From that moment on he had a passion and purpose in his life, to help as far as possible these injured servicemen and women and this has now delivered to us in the form of the Invictus Games. Of course his position and influence have helped – but he has used them to great effect and nothing should take away from his huge achievement. His Invictus Games have changed the lives of so many and now they are firmly established, will continue to do so.
There is also someone else who should be proud of his achievement and that is President Obama. At the moment there is a great deal of assessing going on about the actual impact and achievement of his Presidency. I think it will need more time to fully understand what this extraordinary man has done. For a start, there is no other political leader to touch him. He has that rare thing, integrity. The last eight years have seen him struggle against huge odds when he has been thwarted at every turn. It has made me hopping mad to see how hard he has fought to bring some sense into the gun laws in America, only to find the Republicans and the gun lobby implacable. So the senseless killings go on.
This is only one of the many things Obama has tried to do, some with more success than others, but always with the Republican opposition making it hard, if not impossible, for him to get anything done. Throughout these eight years he has remained dignified, courageous and determined. Lesser men would have crumbled. He never has.
On top of all this he has charmed the world with his intelligence and sound advice. As my grandchildren would say, “He’s cool.”
I look with some trepidation towards the future Presidency. Even if, as I trust and hope, it will be Hilary Clinton and NOT Trump, Barack Obama will be a very hard act to follow.
If only we had someone of his calibre in the UK!