Conservation Manager, Stuart Benn, on inspiring people to do more for nature...
Inspiring Every Generation
Wasn’t the Wimbledon men’s final just the business? Ewan McGregor really nailed it with his tweet: What a match What a player Ya beauty!
Photo via www.mirror.co.uk
The next morning I went through Murray’s hometown, Dunblane, and it looked like there had been a bit of a party – and who can blame them, it’s not everywhere that can boast a double Grand Slam winner and Olympic Champion. Yet Dunblane looks so ordinary, just a regular place – surely world beaters aren’t spawned in such unassuming surroundings? But they are, all the time - because so much of what we become isn’t preordained but down to the upbringing we get at home. And that holds true for all of us not just the famous.
Home and upbringing were at the front of my mind on Sunday. I watched the match at my Mum’s house and with me were my two brothers – both have just returned to live in the UK after lengthy spells abroad so this was actually the first time we’d all been together since the Millennium and it was great to get a good old blether.
As the night wore on we covered a healthy mix of the past and future (to go with the unhealthy mix of red wine and whisky (not in the same glass)) and it was clear just how important early influences were. Our parents always encouraged a love of nature and the countryside and that shaped us – I’ve had a career in conservation, Alister is a professional landscape photographer and Doug is a Professor of Geography specialising in glaciers. Not the same jobs but in our own ways we’re seeking to explain, look after and share what the natural world has to offer, and it’s been fun!!.
Photo via rspb-images.com
What was the precise spark that set us off? The red admiral that one day appeared in our wee garden, the hedgehog we found snuffling about as we walked back from our granny’s house, swallows sweeping over the first fields beyond Glasgow’s sprawl, fishing out tadpoles and frogs from the Newlands Park pond, exploring rockpools on seaside holidays down the Clyde, a book, a picture?
We’ll never know – suffice to say that we got the opportunities and that is all that matters.
Thousands of people will feel inspired to pick up a tennis racquet this week in the hope that we won’t have to wait another 77 years for the next Wimbledon Champion. But why not help give a child an interest that will stay with them forever? Together, this weekend you can give nature a home and that will last a lot longer than a few games of tennis. And who knows somebody you inspired by your love of nature may be the next – take your pick – who inspired you??