.
Do some of you also get a feeling that everything has been said and done? Perhaps this comes with getting older or being tired. Still, while observing the young at play, I see the phenomenon of boredom and ennui on them as well. That of course is really tragic. They are the spiritually dehydrated and they might well spend the rest of their lives not doing a great deal, or perhaps just staring deep into cell phones retrieving missed calls and accessing dated message banks…They seem steeped it what was. You might see them around the exits of shopping malls, listlessly hanging around and will only give the mobile phone a little rest to re- hydrate with a slurp from the Coke bottle or a suck on their cigarette…Teen-age mums rocking the prams.
For others, it comes with getting old and tired out. A sameness settles in like a heavy horse blanket or cloud of mist. We also get a bit tired and what used to come effortless now takes much more determination and chutzpah. The chutzpah is starting to fade and wane. For many though, they never seize to grab something, anything, and keep on being enchanted and energized by what they still might discover. They are lucky to have been born with a seemingly unending spirit on rediscovering the wonders of life even if those wonders have been visited at some earlier time or gone a bit stale. How often can you keep getting excited about ‘beef with black bean sauce?’
I have definitely reached middle age. I’ll be generous and include middle age anywhere between fifty and seventy five, with old age perhaps following from there on. Perhaps not even then. I might even get milder, kinder and extend middle age till a very mellow eighty! I am flexible. I get cranky when I hear kids say; oh mum, I am bored. They always say this with the ‘muuummmm’ being drawn out in a kind of winging howl. Clever mums know it is blackmail and will give them a resounding smack. “There, here have a good smack; this will give you something to be bored about.” And now, bugger off. Go to the park and assault somebody.
In my time parental smacking was taught from an early stage and it did no harm. In fact, it is only since its abolishment that many kids have become totally unmanageable except through parents giving in to their demanding whiles. We load them up with games and consoles that connect to a TV. This has the opposite effect and ends up hyping the kids to hysterical levels. Soon there will be footprints on the ceiling with high pitched screaming renting the air. Grandmother knew very well that fish –oil was the perfect answer to hyper-active kids. A spoonful of cod-liver oil with a good smack and it was sweet dreams afterwards…
A measure of life’s ennui and the unsettling feeling of having just about done or experienced all is my total lack of interest in the London Olympic Games. Sure, it’s hardly proof of ‘having done everything’ being interested in a rather dull affair but I could not even kick start myself in watching footage of the opening ceremonies, no matter how spectacular or how high the fireworks were supposed to go. I am now much more intrigued in the progress of my daffodils, watching millimeter by millimeters of growth sprouting above ground level. At least there is proof of something positive going on. Mind you, since my basket ball days, playing for Scarborough some 50 years ago, I haven’t been able to get into sport at all. I don’t mind others playing or watching but I belong firmly in the totally indifferent to sport or their persona and make a point of always dramatically chucking out the sport section of any newspaper.
Some years ago, the spectacle of the Sydney Olympics and the games in Greece, I still watched segments especially the openings which were works of high theatrical art. But this time the aura around sport seems to be one of ‘old hat’. I am not the only one. Many are also yawning when the Olympics are mentioned, seats remain empty and the fervor of the games seems to have lapsed in indifferent stupor with many commentators falling over themselves with negativity. It seems to have passed its peak, like the mini skirt of years ago.
Has the Olympics had its day and what will it be replaced with?
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
Research conducted three years ago by Louise Cox, Lester Coleman and Debi Roker into why some adolescent girls are more active than others suggests far more complex factors at work than compulsion or a competitive culture at school. Instead, those girls playing the most sport were identified as coming from homes and social circles where sport was viewed most positively and where there were close role models. By contrast, those who never participated – while often still reporting a positive image of sport – had few friends or family actively involved.
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Ah Cod Liver Oil. We were given a spoonful of the vile stuff every day at school when I was in the ‘infants”. Kept one regular apparently. Recently a scientist (biologist) friend provided the explanation: Apparently, Cod Liver Oil is toxic to humans so the body works overtime to expunge it. Getting the picture. They were really poisoning us. Those were the good old days, hey Gerard? LOL
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I don’t even wanna think about the ‘limp picks… In my research of conspiracy theories I’ve read there’s a terrorist plot that’s gonna be hatched by agents of the freemasons who, we are assured by one particular theorist, are really satanists in disguise, who also happen to worship the lizard-people who came here from andromeda, and who were revered as gods; and also who are currently among us on earth, living at the centre of this hollow and artificial planet (oh, the moon’s a hollow, artificial world too…)
Of course, any real terrorist wouldn’t have to bother with any real attack; their objective has already been achieved: look at the inordinate amount of money and manpower, not to mention firepower, being allocated to keeping the games ‘secure’ (as if that’s even possible!) It would be a clever terrorist who could get past all that lot. But, as I’ve said, that the terrorists have obviously achieved their objective is clear when one considers the amount of fear they have already generated, as reflected in the extent of the security arrangements. (I wonder if actual physical attendance at these games is down on other years…)
No… I think a real terrorist will wait until it’s all over… and then hit when no-one’s expecting it… on the way home from the ‘limp picks, perhaps… say at a very busy airport… but I hope I’m wrong and that this too, is just another paranoid fantasy.
😐
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I reckon that countries should vie with each other to build Olympic facilities in a third world country, with the winner undertaking to convert the facilities into hospital/university/orphanage/etc, and run said facility until the locals can sustain it themselves.
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BrilliaNT IDEA. Most of the costs of building the infrastructure is wasted after the games are over. Surely Athens ought to be the permanent place for the games. This would save billions. Even better would be a third world country, but who knows what that country could be in 4 years time? I suspect that as some of the traditional third world countries are now emerging as developing countries, such as Indonesia, India, Thailand and Brazil, it could well be that Spain, Greece, Ireland or even the US might become the ‘new’ third world. Who knows.
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Freakin’ brilliant, Big M. Chapeau!
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I’ve always thought have a different host country every four years is stupid. Best they stay in the one place – Athens or Sydney – probably Athens. Then this country versus country thing might diminish and we get back to just enjoying the athletes. Seeing athletes so disappointed at coming second is just dreadful.
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What a wonderful idea, Viv. Have the summer Olympics in Athens and winter Olympics in Canada, same every year, already the second year in the same place the Olympics will start making money, a good solutions to Greece’s financial problems, and as Canadians are nice , sporty people, it will be good for them too 🙂
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