- Source: YouTube
I do hope you enjoyed this brief excursion into those times colloquially known as The Fab 50's. Hopefully, I have your attention now. There are some today who feel that The Fab 50's were ‘good times’. Or at least, better times than those of today with all of its uncertainties & worries. It might be a shock to many then when I say that with the internet & all the media available with its multitudinous offerings of interest at the click of a button, never before in history have so many folks focused on things of so little importance.
There is a tale concerning the ship Titanic that on the night of the 14 April 1912 its orchestra continued to play the audience's favourite tunes of the day (& those of the past) despite the fact that the ship had brushed past a large iceberg on its starboard side, had punctured five of its compartments & was now filling up with water. In fact, it was irreversibly sinking.
In those last hours, no doubt there was some discussion by the passengers about the cause of the damage, the extent of it, the possibility of the ship being repaired in time, etc. They had different points of views due to their different class backgrounds, levels of knowledge, religious beliefs, political persuasions, etc. Consequently, there must have been no little debate taking place whilst the passengers, for all intents & purposes, were drowning.
Systematic desensitization is a type of behavioral therapy used in the field of psychology to help effectively overcome phobias & other anxiety disorders. Unfortunately, it occured on the Titanic where many could not see the difference between the real & the vividly imagined experience. There must have been some on the Titanic who sat down with a sigh of relaxation & a few drinks from the bar, believing that there was not much that they could do but assure each other that someone, somewhere, was in charge of everything.
Now, I am not proposing here a solution of my own to the problems that the world faces in every country, say, a climate change solution or something like that. The opposite. I don't believe that a climate change solution is what man really needs to think about. What I'm thinking will come as a surprise to many.
Some will laugh & think it's a joke. The man in the white coat in the lab peering into a microscope for the answer will not be interested. The team looking for Higg's Boson with the Large Hadron Collider will not be interested. The man clicking away on the world of the internet with the left mouse button of his computer will not be interested. The man prostrating himself & praying to God in the public squares will not be interested. The woman in the library reading Proust, Sartre & Kierkegaard will not be interested. The woman in the shop picking up groceries & checking ‘E Numbers’ on the labels will not be interested. The folks waiting in car traffic jams & scanning through radio stations will not be interested. You get the picture I'm building?
So...
Here we are.
Me & you.
Alone.
You, dear reader, from somewhere on this planet, who thought that clicking on that blue internet link would take you somewhere interesting for a moment, somewhere a bit more interesting than where you have been up until now.
OK.
For the moment.
Let's stop thinking.
About anything.
Yes.
Right now.
Stop.
And just think on this...
What do you think of when I say ‘rain’?
Did you go out in it recently?
Did you fold up your umbrella?
Did you let it fall on your face?
Did you feel the pitter patter on your skin?
Once, we used to live like this.
In touch with nature.
In awe of nature.
Had respect for nature.
We liked nature.
Very much.
OK. That's it. That's all I want to say. In fact, I'm afraid that's all for this blog too. If you want to follow you must find my other blog. I bid you a very good day.
