After my final meeting as a member of the Social Stock Exchange board, from which I volunteered to stand down to ensure greater diversity, I headed back to the office for a session with the Carbon Productivity Consortium.
Then Lorraine (Smith) arrived with her mother at the same time as (Professor) Adam Sulkowski turned up. We split a birthday cake between us. Six candles, which meant I was only missing 62.
Adam, of Polish extraction, is probably the only reader of Cannibals With Forks, which he remindeed me was published 20 years ago this year, who knew where the title came from. A Polish poet by the name of Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, 1901-1966, who asked the question whether it was progress if cannibals learned to eat with forks?
Adam brought me a copy of A Treasury of Polish Aphorisms, dedicated to the memory of Lec. And one of the aphorisms that immediately caught my eye, particularly in the context of Polish liberation struggles, was this:
Not every boomerang returns.
Some choose freedom.
Then a great Skype call with Jed Emerson in San Francisco, before heading across to Zédel in Piccadilly, for dinner with Elaine and a long-standing friend, Svenja Geissmar, General Counsel at Arsenal Football Club.
First met Svenja many years ago through Fran(cesca) van Dijk, a longtime colleague at SustainAbility – and one of three ‘pod-mates’, in the sense that she, Andrea Spencer-Cooke/Henman and I worked closely together in a small team and all shared the same birthday, even if we are of very different vintages.
Hi John – just stumbled upon this! Flattered to make your blog entry! And thanks again for sharing so much time! Delighted the Treasury of Polish Aphorisms already yielded something of value – I think I remember you noticing an aphorism on generations during a quick perusal of a page (at the end while we were still sitting across from each other at the coffee table) – that may have been the one you mention above? Only one correction (in the caption): it’s Sulkowski, not Sulkovski (though arguably Sulkovski is somewhat phonetically closer to representing correct pronunciation). For anyone reading this who is curious, here’s the write-up of highlights of our conversation: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/59637fabe4b085e766b51450.
Cheers,
Adam