P.G. Wodehouse in Lyme Regis Part 3

 

A 19th Century photo from the Lyme Regis museum

P.G. Wodehouse's novel Love Among the Chickens reminded me of the scenic beauty of the British seaside town of Lyme Regis. While packed with humor, I found Jeremy and Phyllis' courtship every bit as compelling as the love story in Jane Austen's novel Persuasion. One of the themes it left me with was the importance of not attempting to reinvent the wheel when undertaking a new venture. 

The same spirit of adventure that drove Stanley Ukridge to run a chicken farm also led him to believe he could become an expert through research alone. After assessing how others ran a farm, his confidence in his abilities led him to believe he could do better than the average farmer. So he didn't try to replicate the success of others. He didn't pay attention to the particulars. He conceived a grand vision for revolutionizing chicken farming, and immediately tried to outdo everyone.

In so doing, Ukridge became a local celebrity. The farmers and townspeople, who returned the chickens that wandered into their farms or yards, listened to his plans to revolutionize chicken farming. He knew the best way to run a chicken farm, even though he'd never actually run one.

 

 

Ukridge's confidence and belief proved contagious. He talked businesses into providing goods and services, completely on credit, based on plans he claimed could not fail. This reminded me of the early 1990s speculation in trading cards and comics, the dot-com bubble in the late '90s, and the unrealistic beliefs that transformed the packaging of Mortgage-Backed Securities in the United States in 2007 and 2008 into a global financial crisis.

After awhile though, Ukridge learns the wisdom of keeping a low profile. For local shopkeepers and supplier representatives keep visiting the farm. Lacking Ukridge's unique understanding of business and farming, these people grow tiresome by presenting bills, and demands for immediate payment.

While confidence and belief can be fine things, Stanley Ukridge's confidence, and his insistence upon transforming his beliefs into reality, end up blinding him to the truth of many situations. He turns individuals such as Phyllis' father against him by thoughtlessly insulting the man, and assailing him with his political views. He injures businesses by convincing the owners to strain their limited resources by providing him with goods and services while not even paying them a penny. 

Or should I say a single pence?

 

Of course, in each case, there is the fallout. People like Jeremy and Phyllis suffer, when her father forbids her to associate with Jeremy again. Family members of the business owners suffered stress from wondering if Ukridge will ever start making payments on his loans. But then, an unwillingness to listen to others, or accept that their views and beliefs are as valid as one's own, will always lead to suffering.

As for my wife and I, we're currently suffering the fallout from the pandemic. Thankfully, we are safe and well, and able to engage in limited domestic travel. But too many people are unwilling to moderate their beliefs that they know how best to tackle an unseen virus. 

 

Their confidence that they are right, and their insistence upon not taking precautions suggested by true experts, will prevent us from traveling to beautiful and historic international destinations like Lyme Regis for the foreseeable future. And that, dear readers, also affects you, as I won't have any new British adventures to write about. Thankfully, I've still got all my travel photos to share, and I keep reading thought-provoking writers like P. G. Wodehouse.

One way or another, and despite all the well-meaning Stanley Ukridges of the world, we'll get through this together.

Dragon Dave