This week reintroduced me to a new word, or rather a forgotten
word, a verb: to coddiwomple, old English slang for travelling purposefully
towards an as-yet-unknown destination.
Everyone coddiwomples through the race of life, because no
matter how meticulously plans are made at the outset, few actually cross the
finishing line where expected. But then life would undoubtedly be too dull if
we knew exactly where we’d be tomorrow, or next week, yet alone 50 years hence.
Coddiwompling through reading materials is enlightening too.
Pick up a book by one author and, if the text inside proves as alluring as the
cover, rather than reading the entire oeuvre of that one author, take a look at
what that author reads, which writers she or he has read and perhaps is
recommending. The chances are that if we enjoy one author, we’ll also enjoy the
writings that author chooses to read. Thus our reading interests bifurcate
repeatedly, until we have a reading list which isn’t a linear litany at all,
but a gloriously huge literary-family tree, a vast oak spreading higher and
wider through constantly changing branches. Acorns and oak trees.
It’s standing me in good stead. In such a way I’ve discovered
Robert McFarlane, W. G. Sebald, Nan Shepherd, Edward Thomas and the next couple
I’m on the look-out for, Lascelles Abercrombie and Dubose Hayward. These and
many more luminescent writers came to me late, but then the best journeys are
the long ones which never quite arrive at destinations and instead divert us
onto previously untrod fascinating paths.
An added advantage is that as long as we never actually
arrive, we’re bound to keep moving and, therefore, we’re more difficult targets
for those snipers in our lives to hit. So coddiwomple all you want, and if
anyone tries to tell you that you lack focus, or have difficulty setting goals,
tell them to fuck off. Being single-minded about meeting an objective will mean
not spotting opportunities. Whatever you’re doing, coddiwomple away. All roads
lead somewhere and if you’re lucky, you’ll turn off before you get there.
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