My good friend Nimue Brown recently wrote about Circular inspiration, as a concept and positive force in the world. I am going to recount a little bit of what she said here but you can click on the link above and read the full article…

When inspiration flows, it creates cycles. We might think about this as being akin to other natural cycles, like the way water moves through the world. Inspiration is supposed to flow and move, hoarding it doesn’t work. The person who jealously guards their creative energy will find they have less of it, not more.

When we bring our inspiration into the world, that can inspire others. It might empower them to share something of their own. It might brighten their day, or spark an idea in then. The more we do that, the more we inspire each other, the more powerful this becomes.

Aside the wisdom that oft lays behind the many words that Nimue writes, this particular concept is one I ardently agree with. It is why I am never less than flattered when anyone takes something I’ve done, no matter how minor, and turns it into something else. Often what is born from small moments of inspiration can be wonderful. The whole point of putting things out into the world is to see what comes back, and among the greatest of joys is to discover you have inspired someone else.

In her article Nimue offers up an example of Steven C Davis inspiring her and she inspiring him in return. I could also come up with many examples of this happening with the Harvey Duckman project which is almost entirely made up of cross inspiration and feeding ideas to the creative community to see what happens. However, as I have another recent example of this concept at work I thought I would recount it here.

Jessica Law, eclectic performer, writer, singer and occasional fay spirit running around fields catching motes of inspiration no one else can see in Edwardian dresses, or hiding under rhubarb half convinced she is a gnome… cares a lot about eels. More than some might say is healthy…. But we all need passions in life and Jessica’s passion for elongated wet slippery undulating things is no worse than mine for terrible B-movies. Hers at least is a passion that drives her to defend the natural world, and being Jessica write songs…

Several years ago she wrote a song called ‘Sargasso shanty’ which is all about the life cycle of the European Eel, because why would you not ( it’s a great song btw, look it up at some point). One of the reasons she did this was the European eel is endangered due to dams, weirs, and the basic lack of respect for rivers from successive governments. It was in effect a protest song…

In any regard her love of elongated wet slippery undulating things recently caused her to bring to the attention of others a petition to stop export of baby eels from UK to Russia. To quote from the petition…

UK government (DEFRA) is considering permitting the sale of millions of elvers (baby eels) from Gloucester to Russia next spring. Already last year they allowed the export of 1 tonne (3 million individuals) of this critically endangered species.

This is contrary to the letter and the spirit of Europe-wide laws and regulations designed to save this crucial species, to which the UK is a signatory.

When she put out the details of the petition over social media Jessica joked that people should sign it because otherwise she might have to write “ANOTHER protest song about saving the eels”

This was where I came in, obviously after first signing the petition, because lets save the eels people… But to ‘help’ Jessica I wrote the lyrics for a protest calypso inspired by the petition. Which is to say I threw a few words down on twitter, partly to help her ’cause-celeb’ as it might help get her original post out to a wider audience, and partly because I like making silly irritating jokes

And there, many might say, it should have ended. My silly little calypso was just that, silly. However… my silly little song got into Jessica’s head, and stayed there… For days. You have doubtless heard of an ‘ear worm’, this calypso of mine was apparently an ‘ear eel’

A few days later I got this reply on twitter (yes I am still calling it twitter, I will continue to call it twitter, its bloody twitter)

I may have expressed mild amusement, as I pointed out that it was a real song, its had lyrics and a tune (even if the tune was just one in Jessica’s head) ergo it was as real a song as any other. Silly, mildly fatuous and a tad ridiculous, but still a real song… Jessica, a professional musician not an itinerant novelist like myself, may not entirely of agreed. She also still had my ridiculous little song stuck in her head.

And there, many might say, it should have ended. Eventually some other tune would end up in Jessica head, and this one would be forgotten… Except Jessica being Jessica took another approach to removing it form her head, and last night I got home from the bar where we had been having an editorial meeting on matters Harvey to discover this message from Jessica…

https://jessicalaw.bandcamp.com/track/stop-sending-eels-to-putin

Just go and have a listen, its wonderful, seriously wonderful … She took the bare bones of my utter banality, along with her passion for elongated wet slippery undulating things, and turned it into something beautiful…

Which brings me back to the Circular Inspiration Nimue was talking about. Jessica’s post about the Eel petition and throw away line about ‘not writing another Eel protest song’ led to me been silly and writing a very bad one, which she has then taken and turned into something wonderful. But that is not the best bit, the best bit is this, Nimue and her partner Keith are part of Jessica’s band, and because of all this in all likelihood at some point in the future Keith is going to have to wear a shirt with billowing sleaves, calypso dance, and play maraca’s on stage.

Something we all want to see…

A final note, the Eel petition is still live, go sign it if you will. We really do need to stop sending the eels to Putin , for he is indeed an ‘oriable man.. but mostly because eels, elongated wet slippery undulating things, are endangered and we need to look after them.

The link for the petition is here <<<<<LINK TO PETITION>>>>>>