How would you describe Paradise?

I recently watched a Youtube clip of an interview with Laurie Lee. In it the presenter asked ‘What is paradise for you?’ to which she answered her own question by saying it was( to her) a series of joyous moments all occurring in quick succession such as when she walked with her family under a starlit sky and her son said ‘This is darkness….’

In the last few months like so many people I have had to contemplate the very real possibility of the mortality of those that are dear to me including myself. It is difficult to have faith in such situations when there is so much suffering all around us. This ties in with the tricky subject of overpopulation. There may well be too many people in the world but death and especially death via coronavirus is a terrifyingly sad subject.

But can any death be dignified, spiritual and without terror? Ofcourse we all hope for it on our own terms but I think we rarely get it. For example, George Orwell described the look of terror on a fellow inmate of the hospital he was in in Paris when he died in the bed next to him of natural causes.

Anyway, returning to the concept of paradise. If my paradise was to be of my own making it would consist of the series of joyous moments all strung together like the TV presenter described above.

For me that would consist of finding a deserted beach with pristine sand and crystal clear water on the Spanish coast or sitting next to a man and his little daughter on a bench overlooking St Pauls cathedral in Nunhead cemetery as they ate piping hot fish and chips whilst stamping their feet on the frosted ground. Or walking as children with my father to our local pub in Hunstanton on a blowy autumn evening along the wave battered beach making Hound of the Baskerville howls as we went. Or returning from a long bike ride through the green lanes of North Norfolk on a late summer day to a cooling elderflower presse.

Ultimately, I don’t know if paradise exists but every glimpse of it when we are happy and well should be treasured because you never know what is round the corner….