When vanity is just a set of initials thoughtlessly carved on a tree …….

Now I suppose LCEJS thought they were making a powerful statement about immortality back in 2009 when he/she carved their initials on a tree in the Rec.

At which point many will mutter so what?  People have been defacing trees, monuments and works of art for thousands of years.

Those left by Greek and Roman tourists on Egyptian pyramids have now become as protected as the buildings themselves.

Likewise, the names of prisoners carved on the walls of medieval castle prisons and more recently in the huts of POW camps are seen as valuable historic sources.

But did LCEJS think to ask the tree if it was happy with sharing its trunk with a vain glorious individual?

All of which gives me an opportunity to quote from Shelley’s poem Ozymandias, 

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away."

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Vanity, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

* Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1818