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Day’s Verse:
How great are Your works, O Lord!
Your thoughts are very deep.
Psalm 92:5
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I spent all of yesterday curled up in bed. Essentially I slept from 1:00 in the afternoon until 7:00 this morning, although it was a very troubled, oft-interrupted sleep. I feel much better today; at least capable of making some quasi-living motions. Now I’ve entered the stage of a cold where your nose runs non-stop and your ears are so plugged you literally can only hear people if they shout directly at you. I’m just glad I bought the nice soft toilet paper rather than the cheap stuff; it’s so much softer on my nose!

My MQP has suddenly attained this almost-coherent look to it. I have completed a significant amount of research on the history of the Commonside Trust and of the area it serves. My results: because of its rural nature yet close location to London, the really polluting early industries moved out to the Pollards Hill/Lonesome area. This made the it totally undesireable to live in, so only poor people or factory workers moved out there. Then when the factories diminished and housing went in, lack of infrastructure (they literally had no roads, schools, shops, or busses. It was just houses) created resident mistrust in the government that lingers today. Then that homeowned housing shifted to rented housing and people who rent didn’t care so much about the area because of their transient connection with it. More rented housing went in after World War II, but without any means of helping residents feel connected to their community. Then Thatcherism came along and encouraged everybody to own not rent, leaving only the poorest, most down-and-out people renting in Pollards Hill. This led to still more frustration, apathy, hopelessness, and disengagement with the community. That’s essentially where Pollards Hill, Figges Marsh, and Longthornton are today, and that’s why Commonside Community Development Trust is so necessary. It can draw people out and form a sense of community enterprise that’s been missing for all these years. Now if only people knew Commonside existed… hence my project. Ta-da! Brilliant line of reasoning, don’t you think?

Does that convince you that a) Commonside is necessary; and b) my marketing/PR project is necessary?