Different hymn-sheets

A collection of singing bowls must be a choir? A local small business that imports these and many other artefacts from Nepal, some ancient, some contemporary textiles, rugs, wood, stone, hand-made paper, religious and secular curios. Thus it funnels our money back to employment projects in the country, schools and health initiatives. It is the life's work of one highly-motivated individual who fell in love with country in his twenties, built the business and founded the charity through which funds flow

As usual, we visited for stocking-fillers. As usual, while MrsM did the serious searching, I stood around, and ended up chatting with the man himself. He was born and schooled in France, and retains the passionate, French mode of expressing himself. We shared disquiet about all the plastic in the world, the limitations of recycling, the unnecessary excess, the irresponsibility of retailers

I'm not sure how we flipped from there to climate, but I was surprised to find him to be a sceptic. He has, I think, a mystical faith in the power of the planet. He doesn't accept that something as puny as humankind can put it in danger. Perhaps more than most of us, he has experienced its scale and grandeur and power; and pehaps Nepal is one place where people still tread lightly upon it. He sees all the tree-planting in the west and worries less about the rain-forest than I do. He sees volcanic eruptions and considers them more significant than our chimneys and exhaust pipes. In a poetic way, he can't bring himself to fear carbon, when carbon is the basis of all life

Of course, I don't agree, but I'm not going to start futile arguments. I envy him his optimism, and in a way I admire his willingness to stand outside the consensus. His stubborn individuality is what has allowed him to build all that he has done. I fear for Nepal and its many glaciers; I think it's much closer to the frontier in this battle than we are. A battle that will go on long after he and I are past arguing the toss