You’ve had a brief introduction via the homepage, but who am I really? What makes me tick? Do you even care? Well, in any event, you will find out.
I am Ben, Ben Berwick to be precise, though I’ve rolled for many years as Darth Timon. I live in Essex, which is sometimes classed as East Anglia, and sometimes classed as the south east of England. I have worked in retail sales for 17 years, and that has certainly provided its fair share of challenges and rewards. However, I am not Essex born-and-bred. I originally hail from Hertfordshire, and I share an extremely loose connection to F1 superstar Lewis Hamilton, in that he and I are both originally from Stevenage. No, I do not know him. Like I said, it’s a loose connection.
Whilst I was born in the 80s, I consider myself a child of the 90s. 90s music, film, TV shows and the like are what moulded me into the meerkat I am today. I first discovered Star Trek in earnest in the 90s. I came to appreciate Star Wars in the 90s. The Lion King captivated me in the 90s, and it was in the 90s that I truly fell in love with most things Nintendo. It could be argued that virtually all my tattoos have their roots in the 90s.
What with having a passion for video games and sci-fi, people might label me a geek. Where I once might have been irritated by this, I now wear my geekdom on my sleeve. I might as well cement that label by saying that I have had a fascination with the railways and trains since childhood, and did I mention that I have been greatly intrigued by all things to do with space since I was a cub? Yeah, I’m a geek, and I don’t care who knows it.
You may be wondering if that’s it. Has he finally finished waffling about himself? Nope.
As I said, the 90s shaped me. It was in the 90s that I became hooked by shows like Duck Tales, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Darkwing Duck, and Gargoyles. These shows resonated with me, as did the aforementioned Star Trek and Star Wars. However, that doesn’t mean the 90s are where I stopped growing as a meerkat. In the 00s I entered the working world, and there I forged some lifelong friendships, and it was in the 00s that my life forever changed. In 2004 I met a feisty, powerful woman, with whom I shared so many interests. Like me, she loved sci-fi, Disney stuff, and geekdom. It did not take very long for me to fall madly in love with her, and in 2009 we were married. It’s fair to say the 00s proved very definitive as far as my life is concerned! Mind you, the 10s weren’t exactly insignificant…
In 2010, my daughter was born. I don’t mind saying that I bawled my eyes out the first time I saw her. She was, and still is, absolutely perfect. In the lead up to her birth, I honestly felt I had been waiting my whole life to meet her. Some of my favourite memories are of her as a baby, falling asleep whilst cradled in my arms, leaving me with a feeling of peace that to me, cannot be matched by any other experience on earth. If I were to describe my daughter as the light of my life, I would be underselling what she means to me.
Oh, one more thing, something that happened in the 20s that I am extremely proud of. In the wake of the covid lockdowns, I had the time and the impetus to finally (after years of scratching around the idea) to sit down, and write a book. That book would evolve into The Awakening, and that book would become my first ever published novel. Needless to say, I consider that a tremendous highlight.
I wonder if any of this truly gets to the heart of who I am.
It naturally goes without saying that different people will describe me differently, though some details will undoubtedly be the same. I am not exactly a muscular specimen. Some might call me scrawny, though I would say I have developed something of a gut over the past few years. I am at times easily wound up (which is why I have pretty much abandoned football as a passion, it tends to annoy me far more than it pleases me), though on other occasions I would argue I can keep my cool a lot better than people think. I am not a fan of injustice, and rather loathe the built-in inequalities of our money-orientated world. I try to treat everyone the same, and try to see people as individuals. I am not afraid to express myself, especially here at Meerkat Musings, where I will sound off across a wide range of topics.
I believe that organised religion does more harm than good. I believe that women should have autonomy over their own bodies, and that the LGBT community should be able to exist without persecution. I believe that Black Lives Matter. I am certain that a love of the pursuit of wealth is damaging our society and our planet.
Life should be lived. I don’t know if we get one lifetime around the sun, but if that is all we get, let’s not waste it on hate and fear.