Hold An Idea Garage Sale

I’ve been entertained by reading about Matt Holman’s Idea Garage Sale and his brave effort to clear out his link closet. I have notebooks crammed with ideas and observations and my ‘favourites’ list needs a JCB to drag it open. As much as I’d like to think that I’m hoarding something that will be recognised as a modern classic and make a fortune at auction, I’m apprehensive that in the light of day most of my ideas would struggle to justify their presence in the 5p miscellaneous box. There is a reason that some ideas and day-dreams have remained undisturbed in those notebooks for so long. I think that the phrase I am looking for is some combination of cognitive darwinism and utopian delusion.

I’m still thinking about Making Harlow Happy. If I can persuade any of the local papers to publish my letter inviting ideas as to what would contribute to the overall level of happiness in Harlow, then perhaps I could suggest that correspondents contribute items for an Idea Garage Sale. I realise that corresponding with newspapers lacks the immediacy and entertainment value on offer in places like Shoreditch, where you can watch your community gather on street corners, all from the privacy of your own sofa. John Lettice suggests that a useful additional feature would be pressing the red-button to award ASBOs. I wonder if community harmony and involvement might be fostered if viewers could award brownie points and pats on the back to people seen to help others across the road, or pick up and return an assortment of dropped valuables.

Whether it is WI coffee mornings or krumping, sustainable movements need to grow from communities and the energy and talent of the individuals who comprise them. I’m not sure that watching other on broadband connections is a wholly constructive community activity, whatever its merits as a form of promoting a feeling of community safety and invisible involvement. It doesn’t seem to use the community’s energy and talent, unless it is a talent for matching up passers-by with ‘Most Wanted’ line-ups.

I’m still frittering away a lot of time and energy in the process of obtaining an enhanced disclosure. Several weeks after I contacted my local Voluntary Services Council, I’ve been told that I must contact someone in Essex County Council to obtain a registered organisation number. This goes against the information given on the government’s disclosure website and I have a bad feeling that I have been mis-informed and have to jump through this present hoop just to end up back where I’ve started. But then, to use a phrase that I heard this week, I think my recent experiences have soured me with the bigotry of low expectations. I very much hope that I am wrong.

Copyright 2006, Tony Plant Happystance Project