From Inspiration to Perspiration

Yesterday I uncorked a bottle of Australian wine – named after the ’19 crimes’ for which ‘criminals’ could be deported to Australia. The label reads: 19 Crimes is inspired by those who, beginning in 1788 were transported to Australia, for a life of hard labour…’

Some inspiration!

There was a £250 prize for a winning cork. Mine said: ‘No 16 BIG AMY’ Who’s big Amy? Why’s she number 16?

I’d misread… Bigamy was the 16^th of the 19 crimes. I hadn’t won… (Perhaps big Amy had something to do with the bigamy?!)

‘Inspiration’? The Latin ‘Spiritus’ means breath… If someone inspires me, their breath/spirit comes into me…

On ‘Antiques Roadshow’ a woman brought her grandfather’s Victoria Cross, awarded for his gallantry at the Battle of Passchendaele.

The citation read: ‘In the attack on the morning of October 4 1917 east of Langemarck, Sergeant James Ockenden was acting Company Sergeant Major…’ The events of that day were described in detail; Ockenden’s brave disregard for his personal safety repeatedly demonstrated…

Truly inspirational.

Ben Dark writes about ‘The British Lawn’: ‘In 1895 having a poor lawn was considered as inexcusable as a soiled carpet…’  

…Opposing today’s use of plastic grass: ‘Lawn, soil and greenery cool a garden’s surface and surroundings through evaporation and transpiration. Artificial grass provides none of these…’

‘Transpiration’? The process of water moving through a plant… entering through roots… evaporating through leaves… Water/breath coming in and out.

In last night’s BBC documentary King Charles said: ‘The basis of one’s job is to serve other people’… Inspirational… perhaps Christ-like… ‘The Servant King’.

The documentary continued… A woman described how from criminality and prison ‘The Prince’s Trust’ enabled her to turn her life around. She said: ‘My life is now about helping people rather than hurting people.’

The initial inspirational opportunity became a ‘transpirational’ way of life. The ‘spirit’ entered, then moved through her to others.

Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Jesus Christ inspire me; does inspiration lead to action… inspiration becoming transpiration?