sunday life: my first column

Years ago I dated a burly tradesman who committed himself daily to living by Eleanor Roosevelt’s mantra, “Do something every day that scares you”. He had it scrawled on a piece of Foolscap Feint, Blu-Tacked above the cistern of his toilet. And would use it to motivate himself to leave jobs when they became toxic and to introduce himself to strangers in the laundry at parties. Mostly just to see what happened next.

I jotted down this piece of toot inspiration at the time and I’ve been meaning – unsuccessfully – to live it ever since, in the same way I’ve been meaning to clean the venetians in a bathtub of vinegar since reading it in Spotless and make chicken stock with those damn bones in the freezer.

But on this Sunday in June I’m finally taking the plunge. Every week, on this page, I’ll be trying out new ideas that challenge me and you to make the 85-odd years allotted to us on this planet matter more…and to see what happens next.

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