Grave Thoughts

Working my way down the new Twitter stream this morning it struck me how many people have died.  Now this is not new, people have been dying since people began, in case you did not notice, and sadly, one day we will join them.  It is a thing to be noticed that there are more dead than there are living in this world, and the number of the dead increases all the time.  

I was becoming more aware of this as people I once watched on TV or listened to on radio have departed.  At my age when musicians from the 'Punk' era are dying it makes me feel old, as they are still in their 60s.  Yet more and more people who became famous, or perhaps infamous, have departed and they are still doing this.  Singers, TV personalities, comedians, footballers, actors, troublemakers, strikers, politicians, good and bad, all pass on.

In my family only two of the original 6 remain, and I keep reminding my sister that she is much older than I. The aunts and uncles have long gone, friends, neighbours, those who make up my past have moved on.  The life I grew up into has long gone, and most people with it.  How strange.

Yet this is life as it has always been.

My mother lived until 94, all her friends went long before her.  Friends and family from her youth have long passed on, their sons and daughters also!  All that remained were memories and some fading photographs.  

Of course, not all we knew have been missed.  Many we saw regularly on TV or in the press ought to have benefited society by going sooner.  A great many harmed society in many ways, politicians, businessmen, celebrities, and spam merchants.  These are not missed by many.  

Others are missed, even if we knew them only from TV programmes, mews headlines, and goal scoring feats at the football.  Many a musician is missed today as there is no one to equal them now.  In the locale there are always people who benefit the area by doing those little jobs, such a 'Lollipop Lady,' escorting kids over busy roads, or by just keeping an eye on disabled or lonely folks.  These are irreplaceable.  

In our town, population around 40,000, each one has a story to tell.  Some well known faces, some well known to the constabulary.  Each known to someone.  How many have lived here since Neolithic times when a handful of people foraged in these then woods with stone implements to survive?  Since the town blossomed 2000 years ago many have walked the lanes, built houses, had lives and loves, fought wars, made babies, traded goods and services, and fought for better conditions.  Holy days were celebrated, as there were few other holidays, some were serfs, others made it big.  While most worked the fields there were others who travelled the world, usually in an army or a boat.  Many went to the new world, others were forced to Botany Bay!  Still other came for the work on offer and their descendants remain.  

When I worked in Maida Vale Hospital at night, I often wondered about the many who had gone before.  The doctors who had created the Neurological studies during the 19th century had left their pictures in the Board Room.  The nurses, passing doctors, porters and other staff were rarely shown this way.  Occasional names arose but many staff had worked for years in the building and at that time they were now forgotten.  Just like we will be in the days ahead.  

Depressing though this may appear it is not so.  This is life as it is.  We all go through it, some more easily than others, and the good news is the bad days that surround us, which are not as bad as they have been or could be for us, will end one day.  The rogues who hamper us will meet their end, the situations that are difficult will soon leave us, and possibly we will see better days yet.

I confess, if it was not for Jesus it could be a depressing time for me.  However, I look forward to better days, and life is already improving as the days indeed are getting longer.  Nothing better than rising with the sun shining in the kitchen window, and the rush hour beginning with the setting sun brightening the skies outside my window.

Study

Once the hordes of kids and mums and grandparents and kids had passed by allowing me a few moments to myself I spent time relaxing by looking at an old map.  Being of twisted mentality I find comparing the view of the old map to the present very interesting.  
The map I was looking at, not the one pictured above, was first drawn in 1887, revised in 1919 and again in 1921.  Considerable changes have taken place since then and it is riveting to one such as I to see how things change.  For a start many street names make sense, farms that once stood in prominent positions, allowing cows to wander along the roads, have long since been replaced by 1950's housing development.  These today offer good homes to many even though some are often raided by the drug seeking police.  Good homes do not, in spite of quasi socialist idealism change people, only Jesus can do that and it is far from easy as you know.  Most folks are satisfied however, especially those who bought them cheap from grasping Thatcher!
Once busy industry takes up a huge amount of space in this map, now also replaced by housing of one sort or another.  Thousands of men and during the two wars thousands of women worked happily for these companies, companies which cared for their workers in a manner far ahead of their time.  Had mine owners and major industry treated workers as well in the past two hundred years much strife would have been avoided and the far left may never have existed in the UK.  Now all have gone, foreign imports after WW2 brought much of this to an end and only a smattering of such a long industry remains spread far and wide.
Also noticeable are the marked public houses, the vast majority now closed, the many churches most of which remain in place, and public buildings once of great importance now masquerading as Chinese restaurants or other purposes.  
In a great many peoples eyes the town has gone downhill, 'it aint what it was,' is the cry from a great many of a certain age, the idea being that life back then was better.  However if you suggest dumping their mobile phones, computers, fancy televisions, central heating, big cars and vast amount of clobber that fills the house they all change their minds.  Of course looking at photographs of the past many also claim that 'life was better then, much slower and less hassle,' however this is untrue.  While slower that meant working longer hours, often slogging hard for those hours, doffing caps to the upper class, having no NHS, no sick pay, no unemployment benefit but a great deal of unemployment, hassle from bosses and smart folks, and a great many problems similar to today's.  
Many people pictured in those photographs can be heard saying 'It was better in the old days...'
Right, go find a map!

  

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?