The Past

I read today that the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 was being released from jail after serving 29 years inside. This in itself is not something that I bring to your attention it is the thought that for many today this act means nothing. The assassination attempt, (it is always an 'assassination if the target is famous and just a 'killing' if it is one of us ordinary folks you notice) happened before half the world was born! The majority I suspect in this world are under twenty five, (do you remember that experience?) and this event is from a bygone age.

Consider what events before your birth meant to you and how they affected your outlook. For me the biggest event was the second world war, you may have read about it somewhere, possibly a copy of the 'Sun' you found in a toilet at work, and I developed a 'view' on this that possibly still has an affect on me.  How do you view the recent past that means so much to those old folks, your parents and friends, who talk about it so eagerly? It is a bit like talking about a dream, it happened but is vacuous. Only the experiences that we pass through have meaning for us. To a younger generation an event, earth shattering for some, that happened in 1981 could just as well have happened in the days of the Vikings. The recent past, and 29 years is recent to me (and to you, admit it) but to an adolescent near you it could be ancient history! Twenty nine years before I was born takes me back to 1932 and in my mind that is the distant past, made so possibly because the war acts as a buffer pushing events before it into another world. 1932, as you know, was the year Jayne Mansfield was born, my dad returned from army service in India, Laurel & Hardy made 'The Music Box,' the film in which they transport a piano up some stairs, and  Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship by naturalization, however those events appeared to my mind to come from another world, a world before time began.     

When my (much older) brother and sister began to bring home rock and roll records, (Little Richard I loved you) and played them on the gramophone in the corner my mind considered the music of the thirties to be dull and old fashioned. When young ex-workmates sang along to Celine Dion's meaningless outpourings some had the lack of musical understanding to complain 'The Beatles' were 'old fashioned!' Naturally I shot them. This explains why they are ex- workmates. The view of the world of those around us is to my mind made even more strange when you consider that those voting for the first time this year were born two years after Margaret Thatcher was removed (Praise the Lord) from power! These folks have no concept of those dreadful eighties. And what was worse, the politics or the music I ask you? Either way these young folks today have no respect for their elders and betters, er .......did we?