I HAVE a pal who knows how you build a boat. We went rowing on the Clyde, with the folk who had built the beautiful boat that we were rowing in!

I found out it was built in the GalGael workshop in Govan.

It’s all hands on deck in this big old workshop where folk, some of who are facing mental ill health, addiction, homelessness, isolation, or others who simply feel the need for a purposeful space to work in, find it possible to have a go at creating something meaningful for themselves and others and not feel objectified either as ‘service users’ or, worse, losers.

Launched by members of the community in the 1990s, this was a small, social change organisation, looking to make big waves.

Rather than simply establishing a campaign or a charity in the face of scarcity, loneliness and violence, they nailed their colours to the mast by claiming that when any of us find ourselves in circumstances like these, it is often the wake left behind of a system that disregards many of its people.

I’ve always thought, ‘Cut your coat according to your cloth,’ was a kind of snide proverb. Always wanting to turn it on its head if someone said it, and ask, ‘Who among us wouldn’t flounder had they been given only off-cuts to work with!'

On board at Galgael you’ll find all the Scottish hardwoods, oak, ash, elm, cherry, holy and sycamore. You’ll find folk working side by side, team-handed, making everything from bread boards to boats! Only a snob would differentiate between craft and art, so joining craft with culture and community is a potent mixture but it’s the ethos behind it all that floats my boat. It seems to me GalGaels philosophy says, ‘We’ve got to find a better way to be.’

And until that ship comes in, they offer somewhere that people can reclaim skills, agency and meaning, in a space that offers acceptance and belonging. In today’s troubled waters is that not a ships klaxon call for us all!

While their work seeks to “carve out lives of more humanity” it’s not all been plain sailing and they are facing recent cuts. Aged 21 instead of the key of the door, GalGael are working to keep their doors open, at a time when those they stand with, will need them the most.

To join in, volunteer or just find out more, email mail@galgael.org

Or visit one of their open workshop nights and shared meal. It’s on Thursday evenings.

THIS WEEK’S HIGH FALUTIN’ CONUNDRUM:

Each and every individual one of Homo-sapiens foremost familiar will in due course have ownership of a triumphant 24-hour period.

LAST WEEK’S HIGH FALUTIN’ CONUNDRUM:

Reticence is the more efficacious component of intrepid endeavour.

ANSWER:

Discretion is the better part of valour

YOU KNOW YOU'RE OLD WHEN:

Your solution to finding out the planned night with the girls is on the same night as the last episode of that drama you’ve been watching, is to say;‘It’s alright, I’ll tape it!’