You don’t just have to give in

I didn’t have to spend five days cycling across the country to and from a festival. I could just have taken the train. There wouldn’t even have been any moral failing in doing so. Instead, I did it the hard way. In exchange I saw a slice across England in great detail – birds, animals, plants, architecture – and felt the satisfaction of having achieved something. When I performed at a festival in Athens earlier in the year, I could just have taken a plane to get there – everyone else did – but I try to avoid unnecessary flying. Instead, we made a holiday of it, and spent a fortnight on trains, buses, and ferries, travelling through four different countries. In the process, I had the chance to visit Rome for the first time, as well as Turin, Bologna, and Basel. I saw the whole length of the Italian countryside from train windows. I came back relaxed and refreshed, and I never had to worry about whether my instrument would be allowed as carry-on baggage. When I walk into a restaurant, I…