Last week I was driving along the British countryside with Tom, an English guy who works with me. I was a bit hungry so I asked him if he knew any typical place where to eat something, and this is how I ended up at the Three Compasses pub on Lower Stock Road in Essex.
We had very nice fish and chips with an ale beer, and then before leaving my attention was hit by the kitchen door and this woodden plate with the full list of the pub innkeepers since its foundation in 1738.
This left me just a bit puzzled about the meaning of what we do, and how it is affecting future generations. Not many people are remembered for so a long time thanks to what they've done, while usually (and rightly) the most noticeable ones are those who really excelled in their fields or did something unique, like crossing the Atlantic first. Few or no one at all are remembered for having been a postman, a good employee, a car dealer or a barman.
But the people who run this pub decided that keeping it alive is enough for having one's name recorded forever, for enchantment of the visitors of the present and of the future like us.
