Bouncing monks that explode

Al Murray, plain-speaking Cockney comedian and publican, gives his take on the pioneering brilliance of 'British thinking'.

(I won't do the accent)

"British thinking", says Murray, "is about combining things and making something greater than those things from those things." And the perfect example of this? The bouncing bomb, an ingenious concept that won Britain the Second World War with no help from anyone else at all. Not any. At all. Nope.

The Guv explains, "Now plenty of people have made things that bounce over the years, and plenty of people have invented things that explode, but only the British, with British thinking, took those two separate and rival ideas, jimmied them together, and come up with the bouncing bomb."

Okay I admit, the humour is lost somewhat in transcription, but the point is still valid. Pioneering is about coming up with new ways of doing things based on stuff already there. And this is hard.

I was watching an AWESOME episode of Time Team yesterday. Tony and the gang had been asked to investigate an ancient site on Mull in Scotland that turned out to be a sixth century monastery, set up by one of St Columba's original monks as a mission centre to the local area!! How amazing is that!!? I was literally glued to the screen as they uncovered the chapel, the alter and finally the bones of said saint buried beneath (who wouldn't be?). At the end of the program, as always, they explained the purpose of the building, and I'm not ashamed to say I had shivers (and maybe a tear)
while Tony described how those brave, pioneering monks travelled all over the area to establish monasteries in completely hostile territory, winning over the local populace with works of kindness, hospitality and compassion. Their legacy is still felt today.

There's a reason why the term 'breaking new ground' is used to describe fresh ideas. Every pioneer has experienced the back breaking, seemingly futile work of repeatedly hammering away at a thick layer of bedrock to reach the fertile soil beneath. All new concepts face not only the incongruous scepticism of people who don't get it, but also the hard graft of making the idea a reality. Being the first person to try something is a pain in the backside. You have to do all the research, all the planning, make all the mistakes, go through all the failed tests, come up with all the solutions yourself, while everyone else looks on bemused. However, if those intrepid boundary-pushers don't give in to the pain and push through, breaking through the stone bit by bit, then the results can be world changing.

This is the pioneer's lot, her calling, her vocation...to boldly go where no one has gone before and pave the way for others to follow. It's a lonely road and not for the feint hearted, but, well, would she have it any other way? Nope. For the pioneer, not walking the road is more painful than any struggles she might face on it.

So here's to the chap who managed to make bombs bounce, the gang who brought Christianity to a new country, the women who secured their own right to vote, the folk who decided that big round rock in the sky needed exploring, the bunch who convinced parliament that slavery was not an acceptable basis for a system of economics, the bloke who was killed whilst crusading to bring racial equality to a country...

Pioneers all. We salute you.