Wassail

The burning of the old.

We went along to a wassailing tonight. First time I'd seen this in action, and clearly a popular part of the culture of our new home.  For those less familiar, the wassail is an ancient tradition supposed to promote a good apple crop the following year.

First the torchlight procession, then, around a particular tree twelve fires were lit, one (the Judas fire) then stamped out, toast hung on the tree, and lots of shouting.  

The particular part of the ceremony caught in the photo is the burning out of the "heart of the old tree" (actually a few twigs kept from it), such that the "new tree" can flourish.

That seems somewhat apposite to Blip currently.  I don't know what to make of the latest news, but "excitement" certainly isn't an emotion I'm feeling.  

It's impossible to judge from the outside whether the blip economy was viable or not.  Was it financially viable to support the numbers of blip with only the income from optional memberships?  If that foundation was shaky I can quite see why Joe and the team would be excited by the backing by Polaroid.  It doesn't smell like a 'sell-out', rather more a marriage of necessity.  The proof is going to be in the pudding, as they say.

My career has passed through a number of takeovers of smallish British teams by huge foreign corporates.  One was a complete and utter disaster for all concerned.  The other spent several years in a wilderness with the corporate simply not understanding the culture of what they'd bought into.

I do feel let down by Blip but only because of the unresponsive support for us PC users.  The 'this is really exciting'  bollards is disappointing but entirely expected.  Been there; heard that before.

I'm also disappointed in many blippers. Giving critical feedback is one thing, but sniping, and banging on and on and on about some arbitrary point of style, is just not going to help anyone - let alone encourage any changes.

The changeover project was not done as I'd have done it.  (A lot of my career has been change management). The only rationale I can read between the lines is that the financial situation was indeed really quite critical.

I am reminded of the words of a folk song (bringing us loosely back to the photo)

Your hopes of a marriage
and your blackest of fears,
come to one and the same.

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