Blog No. 340 - Way Beyond Exhaustion – Part 1: Younger Me - 5 November 2025

 

The Royal Liver Building as seen from the Queensway Tunnel Entrance that would then loop around to go under the Mersey River. This photo was taken circa 1940, so close to the same time as I was born. On the right you will see the latest google street view photo from the same angle. It is dated August 2024. At least from this perspective, there really isn't much changed, aside from the noticeable lack of a Casselback Bridge right in front of the Liver Building. I suppose these were for people to walk on, avoiding the lawless streets below. 

The Hankin family lived for centuries in the Hoscar Moss area of the Parish of Lathom. Lathom is near the town of Ormskirk in Lancashire, England. Hoscar Moss was a swamp. Over the centuries, my ancestors and other local farmers turned the swamps into fertile farms. Ormskirk is about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the city of Liverpool. Lancashire now exists only for ceremonial purposes and Liverpool is now officially part of the County of Merseyside.

Way Beyond Exhaustion – Part 1: Younger Me 

- 25 September 2025 - 

I was always a writer,

But I had many detours along the way.

The labourer in the cigarette warehouse became the university student;

The one who got there on a scholarship,

While doing so many summer jobs to survive

In 1969, I was homeless.

Mum wanted money that did not exist.

I slept in my tiny Morris Minor - alone and scared.

Later that year I moved into a tiny 2 room flat.

Lectures became things the other version of me had known,

The version that had a home.

By the end of the year, I knew nothing, 

But if I passed the exams I could get a degree;

Not a law degree,

But a degree that would help me get a job.

Using magic I guessed the questions.

I crafted and wrote answers to my own questions.

I hoped my questions appeared on the exam papers.

They did.

Somehow I got a degree.

I didn’t get a law degree;

That would have to wait.

I was worn out,

But I was not exhausted.

I was young.

I was a Super Hero.

All young people are Super Heroes.