I think one of the most challenging and fulfilling things to do in life is to create one’s own world. There are some who may do this in the inner sense. Maybe for a variety of reasons they don’t connect in the outside world and so they turn to the imagination. Perhaps they become artists or writers and learn how to profit from solitary.

Better still is to create a world with others, one that is in some way made up of a common set of values, attitudes and aspirations, a shared experience where the participants are identified by their connection to some mutual endeavour.

I was lucky enough to have such an experience when I was younger from around 16 years-old. During that time I was able to fashion an environment which was to a fair degree defined by chosen values. I may have been deluded in the extent to which these values were shared but they were shared to a point especially at the start.

These indeed were the precious times for me. They are the precious times for many, the coming-of-age years, when characters are formed and futures determined. These are the times when we are first free from the demands of parents and teachers but not yet too shackled by compromise. Having this added dimension of establishing my own scene then and carving an existence partly on my own terms made these times even more precious still. To be able to do this so young was a gift, a privilege, something of which to be pleased and proud.