Lancastrian hits century...

During the last week's little run of postings on the subject of resilience I notched up a century of postings, with a stylish hook. (The shot I think Clive Lloyd, captain of Lancashire when I was a kid, is playing in the photo above. I know he's more famous for his West Indies role, but to me his job with Lancashire was more important.)

I was recently introduced at a conference with a reference to my 'irreverent' blog. Someone else said they liked the way it went from anecdote to the policy-profound, which I think is a great neologism. I've never thought of Arts Counselling as either irreverent or profound, to be honest. What I try and do is talk in my own voice, or tone of voice, about the things that are important to me in my work, in the hope that this will assist or stimulate others. (OK, very occasionally, you might add poke, irritate -or to use a modish word, nudge - to that list.)

Because I've happily avoided a work-life which is totally separate from my life-life, and because I think cultural policy had best be rooted in ordinary lives, that means I find it hard to remain entirely theoretical, even though I like theory. I also think jokes, ironies, asides and straight-forward sarcasm form part of a serious approach. The American anarchist Esther Goldman famously said, 'If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution'. If I can't laugh, I don't want to be part of your administration. I take myself and the arts very seriously indeed, but there is no point being po-faced about it...

When I started Arts Counselling, I had a personal target relating to 'communicating powerfully and prolifically'. (Yes, I'd been on a course.) I don't know whether 100 in 14 month is prolific, but I'm pleased with it. (And no, it's not because I have nothing better to do, as some colleagues have joked, I make time because it's strategic activity!) It's clear there are lots of regular readers out there (nearly 10,000 visits by 3500 people in the last year, plus emails to around 100 subscribers) but I would really like more. Finding time to write it is one thing, publicising it another. Please point your friends and colleagues this way. (You can forward any of the posts by email if you think others will find them useful.) Add it to your favourites list now. If you subscribe and get it by email, please visit the site and comment. And let me know what you think, either by comment or email.