You don't have to be ...

Do you know what?

You don't have to be rich to be happy. You don't have to be clever or handsome or a particular colour or a particular orientation.  Or live in a special place or have a special job.

All you need to do is to be you.

Here's our son celebrating his 28th birthday. He's learning disabled, but that has never stopped him enjoying life to the full. He is not limited by his disability, nor is he defined by it. He is just who he is and we're all very proud of him.

Sixto

Sixto Rodriguez is seventy two years old. He's named 'Sixto' because he's the sixth child in a Mexican immigrant family.

He sings sublimely beautiful songs. No-one listened to them back in the 70's, but we listen to them now.  He's nearly blind, walks on stage supported by his carers, but this man can sing from the heart.

The pictures below are not of Sixto Rodriguez, they are of the time and stage he filled with his music.  In his blindness he sets us alight ….

journey no. 11 - cut-up bus

it was a rainy day

steamed windows and spray

when we left

my camera and me

we travelled express and shot-gunned

it was a Friday

and I walked though flagged arcades

beneath rain-soaked signs

to find sun-shine

cut-up into inner-city strips

just like these ….

We came, we roared, we went home two nil to the worse