Walking with Plato (30 page)

I lived JoGLE forwards, and I misunderstood it. I thought that the sore feet and the rain and the slugs were the bad bits, and I thought that the lighthouses and the puffins and the sea-breezes were the good bits.

But now, looking backwards, I understand it perfectly. They were
all
good bits.

I close my eyes and lean back in my seat.

Later, friends will ask, ‘What was the highlight?’

That’s an easy one.

There were no highlights. Just as there were no lowlights. It was a glorious whole. To isolate any part and say, ‘That was the best’ or ‘that was the worst’ would be to diminish the experience, to misunderstand it.

Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Acknowledgements

Grateful thanks to Mike Harpley for making this book possible, and to Shadi Doostdar for making it a better book than it would have been.