Do you remember when Zoom was the name of an ice-lolly or a word in big slanting letters in a comic; when pictures on the TV of crowds or even just a busy high street didn’t make your brain recoil in fear and disbelief; when you had no idea what PPE stood for and you thought a furlough had something to do with horse racing; when the sky was not such a clear blue, birds were less vocal and your mind didn’t have to filter out the constant din of planes, trains and automobiles? Me too - because it was only a few weeks ago.
Fast-forward a few weeks into the future, when jubilant but exhausted teenagers have completed their exams and schools are closing for the summer holidays; parks are teeming with people at the weekends and cars on the roads to the coast crawl all the way from Croydon. Probably about the same number of people who were employed in February are still employed in August and getting on for as many as 50,000 of the people alive in March are still alive in mid-summer. Not.
In the media we’re frequently hearing the much quoted, misquoted and variously attributed phrase "May you live in interesting times". Wikipedia says this is: ‘…an English expression which purports to be a translation of a traditional Chinese curse. While seemingly a blessing, the expression is normally used ironically; life is better in ‘uninteresting times’ of peace and tranquillity than in ‘interesting’ ones, which are usually times of trouble…’ (Despite being widely attributed as a Chinese curse, there is no known equivalent expression in Chinese).
I’m with Wiki for a number of reasons. I like a good paradox – no reason something can’t simultaneously be a blessing and a curse. Irony is brilliant satire and cleverly (obviously) disguised mockery. Even though great art is often born out of collective or personal times of trouble, suffering or misery, I’d choose peace and tranquillity any day, however uninteresting and lacking in originality. ‘Interesting’ has become a meaningless word used lazily about virtually anything when a person can’t be bothered to use any one of at least twenty more precise words (admittedly it’s also used kindly when there’s just nothing nice to say).
‘Life goes on’ (for the living); ‘tomorrow’s another day’ (that could be good or bad news); ‘everything happens for a reason’ (don’t tell me, I won’t know what that is yet); ‘it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile’ (I like a good work-out); ‘sing like no one is listening, love like you've never been hurt and dance like nobody is watching’ (I will hunt you down…etc…); ‘keep calm and carry on’ (you have seconds to live)… delete as appropriate and add or replace with your own favourite positive thinking cliché
I’m sticking with the immortal lines of Bachman Turner Overdrive’s classic one-hit-wonder ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet’. The world has told us in no uncertain terms, in the chorus: “Here's something that you never gonna forget.” And there’s a glimmer of hope in the verse that follows:
“And now I'm feelin' better
'Cause I found out for sure
She took me to her doctor
And he told me of a cure”
spring 2020 style
