Another grey day. But another day when I managed to run round the village before the rain set in. I suspect that the rain is here to stay for today. We shall see.
As Phil and I seem to have been attacked by germs brought here by the grandchildren, here is a cartoon by Sarah Akinterinwa on surviving sickness season:
The writer Margaret Atkinson was 86 last week, still writing stuff, still giving her opinions, the freedom of being a writer (as she says, she can’t get sacked) make her fearless in speaking, still an example to us all. Asked how she feels about her body, something we all have to consider as we grow older, I suppose, she says:
“It’s old. Stuff wears out. But compared with the bodies of some of my contemporaries, and despite the pacemaker, it’s not doing too badly. I still have kneecaps, I can still touch my toes and walk 10,000 steps a day. Just not as fast as formerly. (“Still” is a much-used word among us.)
Young doctor: “Compared with most people in your demographic, your hearing is quite good.”
Me: “That’s because most people in my demographic are dead. They aren’t hearing anything.”
Him: (puzzled shock)”
As I just said, still not afraid to express her opinions, still outrageous.
Asked about the mist significant changes she has seen in her lifetime, she lists the following:
1. In 1939 there was hardly any plastic. The first big wave of it broke in the early 50s. Everyone thought it was great.
2. The switch from coal to oil in the 50s.
3. The advent of television, also in the 50s. Before that it was radio, with families gathered around the set, ears flapping.
4. The advent of antibiotics – magic! – and more vaccines, including polio. My generation of children had a lot of “childhood diseases”, including diphtheria, which killed young children. Four of my cousins died of it.
5. My generation was all about work ethic. You were just expected to work hard. We thought the 60s hippies were, well, lazy.
6. Civil rights in the 60s, however. We approved of that.
7. The advent of the pill for public consumption, in the 60s, around the same time as pantyhose, followed by the miniskirt and shortly after that by second-wave feminism. A huge change, hardly possible before the pill.
8. With Reagan (1980), the beginning of the end of the New Deal and the rise of the “religious right” as a political force, thus The Handmaid’s Tale, which many then thought would be impossible in the liberal, free‑world leader, the United States.
9. The collapse of the USSR and its bloc, 1989-90. Far‑reaching consequences not apparent at the time. Move one chess piece and all are affected.
10. Did I say media changes – in music, from vinyl LPs to tape cassettes and then CDs, and then the advent of the internet and smartphones and social media?
What she didn’t include was the more recent change to downloading everything - music, podcasts, youtube stuff, films, tv series - and the fact that the younger generation seems to watch everything on their phones. This despite there being huge TV sets in most houses, usually conveniently placed so that you can’t miss noticing them as you run past. Also, the consequent loss of family TV time, when the family would sit round the YV set to watch the latest episode of some serial or other. This has been replaced to some extent to a “Family Film Night”, when you sit down to watch a (downloaded) film together, with popcorn, of course, and the lights dimmed, emulating a cinema experience!
Here’s another new development! “rage rooms”.
“If you find it hard to count to 10 when anger bubbles up, a new trend offers a more hands-on approach. Rage rooms are cropping up across the UK, allowing punters to smash seven bells out of old TVs, plates and furniture.
Such pay-to-destroy ventures are thought to have originated in Japan in 2008, but have since gone global. In the UK alone venues can be found in locations from Birmingham to Brighton, with many promoting destruction as a stress-relieving experience.
According to Smash It Rage Rooms in south-east London, where a 30-minute solo session costs £50, “each smash is a cathartic release, a burst of pure, primal joy”.
“We are at capacity – we were looking for another venue because we can’t keep up with demand,” said Amelia Smewing, who set up the business with her husband after exploring ways to help their son cope with PTSD.”
I suppose it was inevitable in the age of sharing your emotions with all and sundry that someone would find a way to make money out of it. It sounds like an expensive way to vent your feelings. Perhaps it’s not socially acceptable to go out into the garden and scream!
In an article about young women not wanting to get married I came across a new word: a“situationship”, defined in the Cambridge Dictionary as “a romantic relationship between two people who do not yet consider themselves a couple but who have more than a friendship”. A central feature of such arrangements is that only one party tends to consider it a “yet”.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone.
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