Be Yourself 2010 | Be Myself 2021

BLACKPOOL

Be Yourself ~ 2010

Be Myself ~ 2021

July 2026

Introduction

I

Be Yourself was penned one evening in Blackpool in March 2010, and at the time I sensed the sharpend edge of this daring act.

Working through the archive, eleven years on? Much has changed. When that first step is taken that is effectively challenging oneself to acknowledge the real person that dwells within, to step briefly into the light from that unseen cloak we think of as hiding on plain sight, it is fearful. We know that we will learn who are our real friends.

Reading afresh a friend’s comment by text in 2010 in regard to an equally ‘ambitious’ piece I Am Who I Am, 11 years on, here I am and my friend still happily touches the rudder. That really did cause ructions. And it took a while for that friend to come to terms with the reality of life.

Life is hard. Life is cruel. Life - real life - does not play by the rules. And God help, as the sayng goes, the person who finds oneself in the wrong regime, or in a well-esyablished western democracy that is rapidly shifting towards fascism, autocracy and totalitarianism.

In 2026 we see this happening before our very eyes.

As I write this updated introduction, I’m aware that Russia is on the ropes, that the European Union and the United Kingdom are increasingly seizing the initiative, along with Canada and Australia, forging ahead and fully aware that as shocking as it is, never again can we rely upon the United States of America.

This hurts. This was always in my mind’s eye the land of the free. I was intensely proud that my father’s brother Ken qualified as a pilot at Craig Field Alabama in April 1942. On his prompt return via troopship he had taken a snapshot of the Statue of Liberty. The photograph is small, sepia coloured and yet eighty-four years on, it still has an almost mesmeric allure. As an infant and teenager I grew up with that image of the Statue of Liberty resting gently against the clock on the mantelpiece in the front room at 25 Windsor Street.

I would look at Liberty, then I would turn to the left and look across towards the door and see a framed portrait. A pilot in a Boeing Stearman biplane smiling back at me. As an infant I naturally thought it was my father. I remember realising this was not so when I had, again, as an infant, reminded Dad that he was a Pilot!!

Me Ken? No.
Yes you are Daddy. You’re on the wall in the front room at Grandma’s and Grandad’s.
Ah! (and giving me proof that I was right - the identical beaming smile of the pilot). Actually Ken, that’s my brother, your Uncle Ken.

I remember the emotion. I remember how even at that age I knew how that had all suddenly come to an end one night over Germany in April 1943 and it frightened me.

And then all the dots and dashes lined up - conversations came into focus. And it seems that Dad and Mum must have mentioned this, because they did not discourage my questions. Quietly, Grandma and Grandad started to show me things about that young man’s life. The family had quite a task because across the town at 36 Elmfield Road, we had a near identical scenario playing out. The portrait, this time, looking very much like Mum, and I discovered that Mum’s brother, too, had suddenly come to an end one night over Germany in January 1945.

II

What would it look like if written in the first person singular? That exercise follows at the end.

There is peace and contentment this evening. The water is calm, the sails are furled, the ensign neatly coiled, patiently awaiting the reveille. The gentle lapping against the hull will soon, very quietly, rock me to sleep and the joy of a new day in the morning… I had penned in 2010. Again, after a lifetime of concealment, of fear, the dots and dashes and conversations also came into focus. And this could only have been achieved in my adopted City Liverpool, for across fourteen years, the City and People of Liverpool fashioned me, enabling me to see normality where I had been led to believe was only abnormality.

Gloucestershire could not have achieved this. I have returned to my County and it is here that I see out my days but Liverpool did that which was way beyond the capability of my Shire.

And it is Liverpool that quietly nods whenever I am on my frequent visits that looks at me from the Royal Liver Building and nods approval that I am indeed

A City Boy Who Has Returned to Be a Shire Lad as it was always intended to be. Proper, like!

Be Yourself

(2010)

 

You sometimes forget
you just need to be yourself.
Let go.
Don't waste time on what
others think.

Odds On : You’ll have
imagined it anyway,
or misunderstood
and then tied yourself
up like a strangulated knot

If they’re offended by
your lifestyle
then they’ll never win;
but neither will come round
to your viewpoint.

They’ll write you off.
So don't waste the time
of day on them.

Why do you forget
who and what you are?
Are you ashamed?
If you are then
stand rebuked!

You are a fine man.
You've risen above
the mire.

You fought your way
to the surface.

You've not only grasped
air
and trod
water
most your life,
You’re now finding you
can swim,
you don't look any
different to them.

You're not classed as a criminal
anymore!
And here’s the rub
You never were
in the first place.
But don't get bitter.
Leave judgment to
Another.

Get on with life,
What did Steve say
to you?

‘I AM WHO I AM’Is courageous
Still my favourite
And I can accept
you using a pseudonym
to protect your work
but if for another reason
then I shall be disappointed
for you should be proud
of who and what you are
You are one of the beautiful people.
Live it!

Enjoy it!

Seize it!’



In the background

the Ethereal Sounds

of

Tchaikovsky’s’ Symphony No 4 2nd Movement

La Fontana

Blackpool

March, 2010

Images, unless expressly stated, are from my Private Collection through Pinterest and with all rights thereto reserved Pinterest and to the Artist and to the Photographer 

Let us now, eleven years on, write this in the first person:

Be Myself

(2021)

I sometimes forget
I just need to be myself.
Let go.
Don't waste time on what
others think.

Odds On : I’ll have
imagined it anyway,
or misunderstood
and then tied myself
up like a strangulated knot!

If they’re offended by
my lifestyle, fine.
They’ll never win;
but neither will I bring them
round to my view.

They’ll write me off?
It matters not.
Don't waste the time
of day on them.

Why do I forget
who and what I am?
Am I ashamed?

If I am then
stand rebuked!

I am a fine man.
I've risen above
the mire.

I fought my way
to the surface.

I've not only grasped
air
and trod
water
most my life,
I’m now finding I
can swim,
I don't look any
different to them.

I’m not classed as a criminal
anymore!

And here’s the rub
I never was
in the first place.

But don't get bitter.
Leave judgment to
Another.

Get on with life,
What did Steve say
to me?

‘I AM WHO I AM’ Is courageous
Still my favourite
And I can accept
you using a pseudonym
to protect your work
but if for another reason
then I shall be disappointed
for you should be proud
of who and what you are
You are one of the beautiful people.
Live it!

Enjoy it!

Seize it!’

Yep. I reckon that’s ‘game, set and match’

A touch of The Queen’s Gambit!

I like that! I really do!!

Life is a chess board.

And I love chess, so get on with life

July 2026
All Rights Reserved


LIVERPOOL

© 2010-2021 Ian Bradley Marshall

First written on 13 March 2010 and then rendered in first tense in 2021

Life is Good ~ late 1941 Craig Field Alabama USA - Kenneth E Webb RAF VR

Life is Good - Bamfurlong Traffic Division 1984 - Desmond B Webb Inspector of Police

Life is Good - this Twenty-First Century - Be Yourself and thereby Be Myself KW