…does anyone write to the council about it?

In my experience, yes they do. They quite rightly point out that it’s a bit of a hazard. People are dispatched, and action is taken to stop something Even Worse Happening.

Fret not, dear reader, the electricity sub-station near the tree was fine. It was all responsibly managed. No homes went without power, no fires happened. The tree was carefully cut down. What is interesting, though, is what happened next.

The council, realising it was a bloody huge tree trunk and a real faff to get a wood chipper along a public right of way, decided to leave it.

And the children came. Many of them, walking along its knots and exposed bark. Games have been played, relaxation has happened (especially for the sixth formers trying jazz fags when sitting on it); a Good Time has been had by all.

I’ve no doubt there was no grand plan for this. No line item which said ‘create another play facility’. No, it was a bit of obliquity. By that, I mean an unexpected consequence that happens from an event. As someone who has increasingly accepted that modern communications is partly about responding to what happens when you put it out into the world, it struck something of a chord.

Not wishing to get too philosophical, but I think that allowing for this is a helpful way to live your life. Not to just optimise for an expected result, but to give enough space for the knots and the whorls to add character, and value.

My great concern with AI / a chronic lack of imagination that frequently follows with using it - is that tools like it often erase the bumps and hollows, the play. The imperfection, or even how people interact with things. This sort of thing is to be encouraged; as it’s where the real value is.

I’m reminded of the quote Russell Davies had about the value of clarity in relation to feeling: “Nobody ever went to see a movie and came out saying ‘I enjoyed that, it was really clear’”. The obliquity leads to the feelings. The space, and gap to project how you’re thinking and feeling. If it’s all turned into efficiency, that space hugely diminishes.

Because, let’s face it, nobody wants a world where the tree is efficiently recycled. I’d far rather a smidge of council laziness and huge dollop of real world creativity.

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It felt like a song about real life was worth being shared. So here you go. Jangle pop for the win.