"Hypersonic missiles..."

I am so blissfully unaware of everything... unless it affects me directly or flashes up on my social media feed.

I quite like listening to Sam Fender.

Aside from the fact that he is from the town my wife grew up in and once had a cup of tea in my in-laws’ house, I like his music, and I find a lot of what he says quite prophetic. He, alongside the likes of Imagine Dragons and P!nk, points out what he can see in the world around him and seeks to hold up a mirror to challenge it through his art.

​He said of his Album “Hypersonic Missiles:

“This album is … primarily, it’s about hope.
The hope that we have it in us to rise above adversity, and the strength to help carry those who sink.”

He’s not singing about airy fairy things and empty hopes of a time when all things are happy and safe, but he’s speaking of how we tend to live out our lives “blissfully unaware” of what’s going on in other parts of the world until it impacts us directly.
I wasn’t really interested in the war between Russia and Ukraine, for example, until I was told I’d have to wait longer for my new electric car because there were parts being manufactured in Ukraine.

​Traditionally hope has ended up being about a wish for perfection, for something better, whilst ignoring what’s going on in the here and the now.

But hope is not just about us, or about the lives we’re living in a blinkered way.

I think the call is for us to look up from our phones, to look out from ourselves, and to see what needs to change, what needs to happen, and bring hope to others, with hope being the help to rise above adversity.

​Otherwise maybe the kindest thing would be for Hypersonic Missiles to wipe us all out.