To learn a thing or two

I got a telling off earlier from Tim for neglecting my blog over the past week, so here I am, chastised and typing despite the ridiculous hour.

I would have shared a few random thoughts with you earlier, only I was busy enjoying the anger and common sense of Henry Rollins, punk icon and thinker, at the O2. I didn't really know an awful lot about him pre-this evening, but I was up for something new, as always, and I can never resist good comedy.

It was so much more than a bit of a laugh, though, and had an impact I wasn't prepared for. Rollins is shockingly well-travelled and well-read, clued up about the political and social climates of half the world's countries and not afraid to speak his mind and, in his words, make it his daily business to "stick it to the man".

He told tales of his travels, interviewing and filming to expose the lot of the less fortunate. He spoke of the killing fields he visited in Vietnam, with bits of tooth and bone still sticking out of the ground, and the clinic he visited in South Africa, where doctors work 16 hour days to keep mothers with HIV alive long enough to bring their children up.

He talked for hours, until my backside was well and truly numb and my mind was dancing with information. I was humbled at my own ignorance and have made a pact with myself to pay more attention to world affairs from now on (any is more than none, right?).

Furthermore, I've been toying with the idea for a while of getting involved in a cause I feel passionate about - my skills might be somewhat limited to stringing together sentences and then checking they make grammatical sense, but who's to say that wouldn't come in handy somewhere, somehow? I was thinking of offering my services to a local political party, but now I'm wondering if there might not be a few worthier causes to dedicate time to.

Life has been treating me well recently - so well that I've been waiting for the punchline. Perhaps it's time to give a little bit back.