BEAKER

XXXX – 2024

Some words on a Lakefest legend...

I knew nothing about you. Call me Beaker you said. That was it. You were the Yin to the world’s Yang. You balanced it all out with focus and calm. One of the gentlest men I’ve ever met. You were from another time, in touch with the universe. Nature’s spirit ran through you. You radiated love and understanding – always giving back more than you received. You’re not an artifact of a distant past, your way is the future. I hope we realise it before our descent into the flames.

But I didn’t know your name.

We 21st Century Boys & Girls are all about image. Pretence. Manufactured Personalities. Life as an Avatar. Shallow World. But not you Beaker. No. Not You. Like most Real Characters I’ve met in my life, you genuinely didn’t realise you were a personality. A Star Man amongst the dross. The rest were flotsam and jetsam in your wake – but you were too humble to know. I loved you for it. 

But I didn’t know your name.

Did you have family? Where did you live? What did you do? Was there a special kindred to share your love of every single particle in the universe? International Man of Mystery I’d say. You’d say. Nothing. You held people together as they fell apart. You carried their load. But I knew nothing about you. Did you know yourself? Perhaps you knew yourself too well. You were the most together person I’ve met, but inside you were breaking. I didn’t notice. Sorry.

But I didn’t know your name.

They’ve named a Cider Bar after you at Lakefest – Beaker’s Bar! It’s what they do. It’s a place of pleasure through excess, calm enlightenment amidst the noise and chaos – it suits you well. I know you’d get all embarrassed and flustered about it all, but deep inside you’d be chuffed to bits. It’s a nice touch, isn’t it? I just wish I could share a pint or two, but it’s never to be. Just take my smile. Either way, there are worse shrines.

But I didn’t know your name.

We all need labels for things. Giving something a name helps us to position, understand, categorise. I’d say ‘You may be Beaker, but you’re no Mug’. Your eyes would twinkle and you’d grin. Maybe you’d heard it a thousand times – but you’d laugh, for me. I thought about you in the dawn’s early light. You’re dust now, blowing in the gentle breeze across those Lakefest fields. I breath you in. You are I, and I am You. I knew nothing about you; but I realised I knew enough. I’d known your name from the moment we first met – your name is Friend.

Climb on up gentle soul, Climb on.

by Barrie Dimond.