Life on board ESS

Somewhat drifting in thought on a recent journey from the windy south to the windy north, I leafed through the “duty-free” magazine. “Pensive, though not in thought” was the way Robert Southey expressed it. (I hasten to add he wasn’t on the same flight !) Anyway my eye was caught by the poetic description of the richnesses to be discovered in a particularly costly bottle of cognac. “Its flavour combines a mixture of oak, floral and fruity notes, predominantly vanilla, with a hint of liquorice, the roundness of summer fruits, especially ripe apricots and peaches and the impertinence of wild flowers, particularly violets.” “…the impertinence of  wild flowers…”  How true I thought ! I have myself been startled this year, so close to the spring equinox, by an impertinent primrose or two, even a sneering snowdrop, poking their noses cheekily out of the grass in Lundagård park. And soon we’ll have to run the gauntlet of the daffodils…  Are the wild flowers getting more disrespectful nowadays or is age beginning to tell on me ?

But perhaps there is a message for us to learn here. Shouldn’t we enthusiasts for the ESS be less prosaic and allow ourselves to be more poetic in our messages ? Not to misrepresent, but simply to appeal. After all it’s human beings who decide whether they need the cognac, and it is human beings who will decide on the ESS.  Whether we like to admit it or not, the same psychological forces are at play.

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