Categories: uncategorized
Date: 07 November 2011 10:17:42
Saturday involved amongst other things watching Piers Morgan interview Rolf Harris and reading my fathers description of his own life in The Guardian. It was strange because the same issue hit me in both....what price paid by their families for their career choices?
Before I start don't get me wrong I am not comparing my father to Rolf Harris in terms of stuff - Rolf is a genius and my dad is just rather good, (although my dad is a talented artist on the rare occassions he goes back to his art and whilst he can't sing his storytelling and poetry make him an excellent entertainer). But they are both entertainers at heart and that has taken them away from their families at time, whilst the kids were growing up, leaving a wife at home to deal with it all.
In his interview with Piers Morgan Rolf explained that he had a home to maintain and didn't know how long success would last, he said, "what choice did I have?". In my dad's case I think it was he was searching for that success which has on one level alluded him but on another has been achieved. He is not famous but amongst the right circles he is not unknown and Third Party has been the one to reap the greatest rewards of him becoming established on the festival circuit. At the same time the question is there for him too, "what choice did he have?". Entertainers and artists have something within them which means they have to be let free to explore....that much I do understand about my dad's choices.
In terms of the my mother, she was a teacher. For much of her career she was cobbling together part time contracts into something which might resemble full-time wages, meaning for many years she was working more hours than somebody earning the same money on an established contract. I entered the same world as her and did the same kind of thing, although by the time I was teaching they were changing the law to make contracts more stable and the disparity slightly less unfair. As a child it was her long working hours I noticed more than my dad's....dad sometimes just wasn't there; he was sending exciting post-cards home whilst doing things like driving the Adicts round Germany telling me he'd been playing football with Die Toten Hosen.
As an adult I understood it was my mother who really was dealing with the "what choice did I have?" dilemma; just as it was Alwen Hughes, Rolf Harris' wife who really faced the same question....what choice did she have? If these women had actively sought to constrain their men they may well have lost them.