Irish Colin

Years ago, I was in the kitchen of my then workplace having a chat with my mate Colin (not really called Colin).

He could talk.

But not just talk – he would go on these beautifully colourful tangents that were often way off topic and completely pointless to life, but his knack with words and delightful Irish accent made them a nice thing to listen to.

He was eating cake, and I said something like “that looks good”. His reply started with “Well that’s because…”, followed by a very detailed description of his wife’s tricks to making it taste amazing, how long she cooks it for, which is not what the recipe recommends, and on, and on, and on. I knew I was stuck for a while.

Eventually (with a grin) I said something like “Mate, get to the point, we’ve got work to do…”

He stopped for a second, then said “Wife bake cake good”, like a caveman. He then said “Sorry I don’t really do points, I prefer to spiral…”

Here’s the point (or the spiral):

Sometimes the point really is the end—literally the pointy end of the story.

Other times it’s a journey, with many stops, that helps to make the point… pointier.

The connection to climate?

It’s hard to just say “be sustainable now”. It’s even harder to do.

You’ll take on advice, try something, listen to more advice, try something else, have wins, have fails, and spiral your way to a point where you’re closer to being climate-smart than you were before.

Try to enjoy the colourful mess along the way.