My thoughts of kindness after watching a hero weep

NOW then. There’s obviously no way that I can write about it again so I shall say only this. Yes, I was there and yes, it was amazing. So amazing in fact that I missed the last train home. I was there with my little brother (he’s about 6ft 4in) who was also my companion on that famous day in 2005. We were there too.

Lots of people this week have said that I was lucky to be there. I don’t agree. My being there had nothing to do with luck, but was the result of a lifetime of committed fandom.

This week that commitment led me to the Picturehouse cinema in Exeter to watch the “exclusive” premiere of a sports movie. The premiere was actually in London, but was being screened simultaneously at a variety of cinemas all over the country. There was a question and answer session ‘live’ immediately afterwards. In other words it is sort of thing I would NEVER normally go to. But there I was. I love cinema, the bigger the better, and hadn’t been to a smaller screening like that at the Picturehouse for a long time. Excellent food and drink at the bar upstairs, personal staff, and an intimate movie experience. It’s boutique cinemas all the way for me now.

So, Mrs Martin and I, and about a dozen other of the similarly committed, took our seats and watched a grown man cry. In a quite extraordinarily raw piece of documentary cinema the man – one of the protagomany leaving the Army or Navy in their 30s was a tough gig. I knew several former officers who landed lucrative roles in the private sector – but simply could not understand wjhy people wouldn’t do exactly as they ordered. For two of my friends, life was a real struggle.

Fortunately I never made it to the top in elite sport, and after my period in an institution – sometimes known as boarding school – I was lucky enough to have the soft cushion of university in order to open my eyes to what life in the real world could be like.

Talking about your mental health is more fashionable these days – in fact thank goodness it is encouraged at most work places.

Journalists – especially those who specialise in news – have always had to put up with a fair share of criticism, but for our digital writers the level of abuse – much of it very personal – has gone through the roof.

Reporters, like elite sportspeople, are very much in the public eye, and can be vulnerable in a torrent of criticism.

This week’s movie made me think a lot about that. The effort and sacrifice our heroes have made in order to become our heroes is off the scale. It is all too easy to sit in the stands and criticise – no matter what it is you are watching. “Be kind whenever possible, it is always possible,” are the words that spring to my mind.

Anyway in a bid to be kind to myself, I shall mention it once again. Yes I was there. Yes it was amazing and yes, it made me very happy indeed.