1st of February 2003 - Hayle

Its funny to think that a building so big could be so much younger than me,
Its strange to think that the moon in the sky, might be older than our ageless sea.

Today was all about age, and ageing. On my 10th birthday in 2003 a large tennis centre was opened near where I lived, this building subsequently became a huge part of my daily life in the years to come. As written in the short verse I wrote above, I found it mind boggling to think that this huge building which had become so important to me, was only half my age.

As I walked along the 2 mile long beach from Gwithian to Hayle I followed footsteps. All the footsteps were leading towards the end of a beach which no matter how far I walked seemed out of reach. Some distant destination, that it was not possible to rush to; there is no quicker route over sand, just one long walk. The only way to get to that end point was to journey. I began to think of the metaphor of journeying as ageing within my project, although as we all know this is not just a metaphor and is more just fact. As we journey we age. Each footstep I saw in the sand was younger than its former, however the foot which had created them got older with each step. I like the idea of physicalising time; as I have done by mapping my lifeline onto the line of the coast path. However I became acutely aware that so too had everyone else who had walked along the sand today. As we walked together, we aged together; at the same rate. The footsteps I was following were other people's lives, mapped right there on the beach; an ageing line in the sand.

It is fair to say that this is of course the overriding metaphor I am working with in my project, although today I was just fascinated by the realisation that really it isn't a metaphor at all, and that actually when we walk anywhere, we are walking through our lives. Journeying forward through age. Travelling over and drawing our lifeline. Just think about it next time you are walking somewhere. Your are not trapped in an age or period of your life, waiting for your next birthday to when you can age and move forward along the line; imagine yourself walking into the future, walking through your life.