Up here on the hills above Brewardine in Herefordshire, England, the only people you tend to encounter are residents in the gardens of their scattered cottages and the occasional motorist passing through. Sometimes those such as myself make a brief visit Arthur's Stone, a mediaeval burial mound left exposed and bare by soil erosion. It has none of the glamour of Stonehenge, or the historical importance of the stone circle at Avebury. Away from the tourists and crowds this place allows the visitor to think and dwell on whatever is bugging, interesting or pleasing them at a leisurely pace.

Sat here at the entrance to the chamber of the mound I'm drawn to a signpost that directs visitors anonymously into an adjacent field full of sheep. The sign offers no destination and that is enough in itself to make me look again at the animals in the field.

Either born on the farm to which the field belongs, or from a cattle market, the sheep are quite happy to spend their day in the sunshine led down or on their feet chewing grass. Their existence is the present and they have no concern over their future. They are quite content that their signpost bears no direction. The cruel irony is that I can see their ultimate destination and need no written word to consider the terror they will eventually face to keep the meat and food industry alive. They are destined to become faceless and deanimalised. Their signpost only exists for the benefit of humans.

By the same token I too have had my signpost marked with a destination since the beginning. Like the animals my purpose is largely to benefit others. I have not the ruthless instinct or hunger for money to allow me to even consider becoming an entrepreneur. I would rather that my signpost would point elsewhere to permit me to work for the collective and moral good rather than a moneyman. Somehow I think I'm going to have to wait a little longer before the soil around the foot of the sign erodes, like that once on the burial mound, to slant in another direction.

How I envy the sign that points to no destination. Just be.

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