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November 07, 2011
Focused on dying. And acceptance.
I have benefited today from the final words of a dying man not famous in his life for a deep spirituality. Indeed for some he represented everything that was appallingly cunning and manipulative about New Labour. But our perceptions are as solid as smoke and here's the back-story:
Philip Gould died today of a cancer aged 61 and will perhaps be most remembered by the public for his focus groups and his dying.
Tony Blair - not necessarily the advocate you'd wish for at the end - describes him as an indispensible part of the rise of New Labour: 'To me he was my guide and mentor, a brilliant mind and a total rock when a storm was raging. He was always a constant advocate for the British people, their hopes and anxieties.'
Blair refers here to the focus groups which Mr Gould introduced to politcs from his advertising background. Such groups have a tarnished image now, sullied by too close an association with New Labour but Gould remained a fan of them to the end. Focus groups, he claimed in his revealing interview with Andrew Marr, expose a deeper truth than traditional Yes/No polls. They reveal who people are, their deeper longings: 'People feel paradoxical things,' he says, 'focus groups are truer than polls.'
Like the court jester of old, Gould's ability with such groups made him a significant if uncomfortable truth-teller to those in power: 'This is what people really feel about you.' Philip found this particularly hard in the 2010 election in relation to Gordon Brown: 'Gordon is such a vulnerable man so easily hurt; no one wanted to hurt him.'
But the onset of cancer brought a new experience of life to this self-confessed 'political nutcase':
'When you move from one diagnosis, that's one thing; the second diagnosis is another, but the death diagnosis - the level of intensity is so high, so strong and so powerful that you are just in a differerent world.' The doctor, when questioned about how long he had to live, said the worst case was three months. And the best case? asked his wife Gail. 'Three months,' came the reply.
Mr Gould described his time in the 'death zone' as the most extraordinary time and 'certainly the most important time of my life. I look out of the window and feel the intensity of the garden, the intensity of my wife and my family - it is the natural place to be.'
Tony Blair says that in dying, Gould grew 'emotionally and spiritually into this remarkable witness to life's meaning and purpose.' The former pollster agreed, saying he'd not have wanted to die the person he was before the cancer: 'I've reached levels of integrity, decency and compassion which are entirely different,' he said six weeks before his death.
The words of the dying carry their own power, coming from a place of enhanced reality within. Certainly Mr Gould's words of clear-sighted acceptance melted my minor difficulties of this morning and took me instead to my North London window to contemplate the grey, cold but holy day.
'To leave this extraordinary place now, I would not want to do that,' he said. 'This is the final place and the right place for me at this time is the final place.'
I'm reminded of the Anthony de Mello dialogue:
'Today,' says a man, 'I feel as if I might not live beyond tomorrow.'
'But doesn't everyone know this?' says his friend.
'Everyone knows it,' comes the reply. 'But not everyone feels it.'
Philip did and found something there.
Posted by Mr Bojangles at November 7, 2011 10:15 AM