When I started the blog a year and nine months ago, I never thought I would still be writing after 500 postings. The reason of course is you, my readers, who still find what I have to say of interest, even if you don’t agree with it. A lot of the interest is in the biographical sections, but I believe that my rather sour outlook on the life of today is echoed in the minds of many of you.
Recently I have been thinking about the lot of those young people in their 30s and 40s, making their way in the world, and now under such a burden of expense, and in some cases ambition, but to my sad old eyes they are spending more time going from here to there, working, shopping, baby minding and worrying, more than we ever did, because we had an extended family who helped to carry some of the burden. We were not scattered to the four winds like families today, where they spend so much time travelling. The longest journeys we had to do were to the next town, and most to the next street. I feel there is so much more to life than the material things, in some cases the isolation, and above all the responsibility that these young people now bear, which we could share. I have written another one of my bits of doggerel, to show just how miserable I can be.
Thanking you for your interests, because that’s what keeps my brain alive, John
Requiem to the past
The young with blinkered eyes search the horizon
For a future they can only imagine.
Am I therefore wrong in looking back, not on?
Recalling what was then as an origin
Against which to compare with a critical eye
The immediate past and the rushing present,
So foreign to my way, my roots to defy,
Selectively, seeing chaos I resent,
Not for myself, my time has passed, good and bad.
But for those I love and those who I admire.
We have mislaid the honesty we once had
And probity is foundering in a mire,
Of our own making. Or perhaps I’m just mad?
Too simplistic? Seeing ghosts that are not there?
Held in the nostalgic aspic of the past,
Not appreciating progress, just unfair
To those who are making our lives go so fast.
Are we running to stand still, or in retreat?
With commands, countermands, changes till at last
With falsehoods, lies, and apathy, we’re downbeat.
Is it unsurprising our young are confused?
Restricted as they are by their parents’ fear
That they could be molested, perhaps abused
Through incompetence of those we don’t revere.
The system is failing us, it needs revised
The pressure of minorities, paramount,
Causes our culture diluted, ostracised.
To some of us it seems we no longer count.
A steadying hand on the tiller we need,
One not tarnished with incompetence or greed,
Considerate and taking all into account.
Open, honest, trustworthy, like the old school?
Shrewd, tough, his own man, and nobody’s fool.