Stealing Nobody’s Sandwiches

A short story:

Stealing Nobody’s Sandwiches

And so he left the Do Lectures, and the only thing outpacing the whirr of his window wipers on the drive back home, was the whirr, clank and grind of his brain.
All those lecturers had said “the time is now”.
All the leaflets had said “Do”.
All the tea-breaks had buzzed like the pin-ball machine in Tommy, firing ideas around, and around, and around.

And when he was little he hadn’t had a great deal.
He’d lived quite a life already though and seen, at close hand, the very best and the very worst that man can do unto man.
So through his little business he tried to put something back. He used the outdoors to try and enthuse anyone, but particularly children, to take the roof off their ambitions and do stuff.

He wondered what would he have done differently if he had been able to participate in something like the Do Lectures when he was a kid ?
Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, “don’t” very rarely had the last two letters taken off it.

Imagine if those lectures he had just heard, and some of those workshops, and all that talk about imagination, and that buzz, and that positivity. Imagine if he had been there when he was 14 or 16 or thereabouts.

Imagine if aged 15 he had heard that rock-star man from Moshi Monsters, or the bonkers man from the Eden Project, or the man who made us lick that paper, or that stuff about Falling Whistles.
Imagine being told to just get hold of the n, the apostrophe, and the t, on the end of don’t, ban them from his vocabulary, and just Do.

Like a Do Lectures for little people.
Like a Do Little Lectures.
Like kids across the planet getting the same call to arms as grown-ups do at the Do Lectures (maybe a few more cartoons, words you can understand, smoothie bar instead of Rev James).
Like being able to be there. Or watch them on-line.

Still like an enormous, huge, inspirational “Do”, just a bit littler.

And the rain continued to lash the car. His brain continued to fizz and pop and bang.
And he got home and he slept on it.
Which is a lie because he hardly slept at all, he kept waking up and scribbling stuff.
Pages and pages and pages of stuff.

And he really didn’t want to steal anyone else’s sandwiches. Anyone elses ideas.
And he wondered if it could work.
And he imagined if everyone that had ever been to, or watched a Do Lecture lent a hand.

So he took out his ‘phone and did two things.

He bought a web address for five years. DoLittleLectures.com.
He didn’t know how to build a site, or do that hosting stuff, but he knew some people that could. Some people that “Do”.

And he wrote a short story called “Stealing Nobody’s Sandwiches”.

Then he made a nice cup of tea and wondered …..

Ps the web address is free to anyone that uses it for the spirit in which it was bought

A Do Barter

If you were at the Spring 12 Do Lectures in gloriously sun kissed Wales you have been automatically entered in to a draw ……

Whether you play outside every day, never ever play outside, play outside on the Wii, or have forgotten what outside is, you have just won first prize in the draw ….

We meet somewhere with no roof or walls. Somewhere mutually convenient, or we share travel costs, and we err …

“Solvitur ambulando”,

literally “solve by walking”

I will weave some magic, brewed up over 25 years of playing and leading groups in them there outdoors, which means you will be safe and smiling.
You can bring yourself, your friends, your family, business colleagues, little ones, old ones, round ones, long ones, anyones.

We’ll go for a walk.
Breathe fresh air.
Play pooh sticks.
Roly poly down grass banks.
Climb trees.
Dirty knees.
Breathe.
Walk.
Talk.

All woes can be salved by a walk, a talk, the occasional cup of tea and piece(s) of cake.

Solvitur Ambulando.

Whats in it for me ?
You “pay” me in anything other than money.

Whats in it for you ?
A mental Spring clean. Lungfuls of fresh air. Probably some muddy jeans to wash. Definitely some breathing space.

Whats the catch ?
See how we’re naturally suspicious ? You’re looking for the hidden costs, the expensive kit you need, the fish-hook of financial commitment.
Look off.

Memories.
We’ll do digital to record what we do. For free.
And crayons and foldedsheet products to draw and doodle and create tangible memories. And i will buy those.

Imagine if everyone on the bus, the tube, the train, the queue at the Post Office just had a natter. Went for a walk. Went for a cuppa. Common ground would be found. Preconceptions would go in the compost bin.

Imagine if, once they’ve dried out and caught up on sleep, everyone at Do kept in touch and met up and shared stuff like laughter, like stories, like swapped a walk for a loaf of bread, or a poem for a bike repair, or a bed in a strange town for the night for a handknitted bonkers colours pom pom hat ?

Remember the “this is everyone” board near the tea stand with all the white cards on ?
Imagine if they weren’t just 80 people you’d met for a few days in a tent in Wales in April 2012.

Go. Do. Be.

Tomo

Click here for Captain Sensible -www.thepathlesstravelled.co.uk

Click here for Captain Haddock –
www.tpltravelled.tumblr.com

“Play is the highest form of research”
– albert einstein

“All great thoughts are conceived by walking.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche

“twenty years from now you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do” – Mark Twain

Small Print:
1- This is not a limited time offer. Although my lifestyle occasionally replicates Oliver Reed’s, you should have the next 40 years to barter it in.

2- If you lectured, cooked, put the tents up, wired the tent up or wiped the tables down you are all welcome to barter. Come on in the air is fresh.