Britain has chosen to leave the EU, and the country I grew up in is set on a new course.
With such instability and uncertainty, it is tempting to react, worry and complain. I certainly do, but in trying to understand what’s going on, I hope we can strive to harness the virtue of equanimity: composure in a time of crisis and control of our emotional response.
As my friend Aidan Horner said this morning, for many, there is a sense that part of our nationality has been taken away. I grew up watching Bergerac and Going For Gold, spent years trying to learn French, then German, then Italian (none that successfully). I’ve worked in Germany, and with colleagues from across the continent who chose to come to London. Europe has been a significant part of my identity. Today’s result calls that into question.
Or does it?
We are a generation that respects one another’s right to self-identify in so many areas. Our own national identity should be no different.
I voted to remain in the EU, but must now accept that I am in the minority. Great societies are defined by compromise, and it’s on us to listen to those with which we disagree, and find a middle ground. Many in Britain feel more Welsh, or Jamaican, or English, or Polish, or Pakistani, or French than British. Politics is what happens in the spaces between these identities. We ignore this at our peril.
In the coming weeks and months, I hope I can listen to all these voices, and not react. That’s what equanimity means to me.
I write as a British man of Scottish heritage, currently living in Oakland, California with the American daughter of Vietnamese refugees. If we are lucky enough to have children, they will have a smorgasbord of national identities to choose from. And it is their choice.
I choose to be British and European, in a kaleidoscope of cultures.