The shape of the world,
at least the human’s in it, is changing!
I wonder if any of you,
my loyal readers have noticed how the world’s people are changing shape. No I’m not talking about obvious changes like
large numbers of the population becoming obese, or as the human race evolves,
each subsequent generation becoming taller.
No, maybe more subtle, albeit huge all encompassing changes that I’m
sure in time will become as far reaching as the two examples above.
Here are just a few
examples of what I mean – maybe we should see how many others we can come up
with – post a comment below with your suggestions.
·
Visit a tourist attraction and take a
look at the view, then turn around and look at everyone else admiring the view
and taking photographs. How many of them
are taking pictures by looking through the camera viewfinder? I bet not many, as most will be holding their
cameras, or in many cases mobile telephones, at arm’s length peering at the
small screen on the back as they line up the shot! This also allows you to take a picture of
yourself with the view behind you; I’m tempted to ask if tourism is going
backwards and will the sign language for “can you please take a picture and me
and my friend with the ‘Eiffel Tower / Arc de Triomphe / Christ the Redeemer /
Niagara Falls / etc etc’ coming out of our heads” be lost for ever!!
·
Thinking about mobile phones and whereas
initially everyone under a certain age seemed to spend their lives walking
around with one hand up by their ear, now that’s all changed. Perhaps due to health scares about overuse of
mobiles and also due to the increase in the use of text messages, these same
folk now walk about staring into the phone held in their palm stretched out in
front of them, and often quite disconcertingly appear to be talking to
themselves into the bargain – so maybe too much phone use does drive you mad!
Oh no, on closer inspection they’re stretching one ear out of shape with an
earpiece and talking “hands free” as it were!
·
Off on holiday – again look around and
see if you can see that rarest of humans – someone who is actually carrying in
their hand their suitcase – no more often than not even the smallest briefcase
now has a set of wheels and an extending handle, or their luggage is in the
form of a backpack with straps over each shoulder. That said even backpacks are now sometimes
fitted with wheels!! I worry however,
and wonder how long it will be before an in depth survey (sponsored no doubt by
the luggage industry – oh how cynical I’ve become!) confirms my worries that
twisting to pull your luggage along behind you is not good for your posture and
new ergonomically designed luggage floods the market!
·
Dog walkers now have a new must have
accessory, a plastic bag strangely often clear, stuffed casually into their
pocket with one end quite obviously intentionally on view. I guess it’s a bit like the youth of today who
wear, only just, their jeans so low that it is quite easy to know the make of
their underpants as well as the shape of their upper buttocks!
But,
back to the dog walkers who would previously stride out occasionally reaching
down for a stick or a ball to throw for the dog, saving them having to walk as
far! But now, added to the walk is the
ritual pulling out of the plastic bag, inserting one of their hands into the
bag, carefully bending down (for the more sensitive amongst them pretending to tie
their shoe lace), picking up the business that has just been done and
nonchalantly sealing the bag and swinging it in their hand whilst looking
around for a red bin in which to deposit it.
There seems to be this strange balance between trying to make out that
the bag (remember often see through!) contains the remnants of their picnic or
some shopping they have just done and the “look at me aren’t I good” brigade!
·
Couch potatoes have now changed, at
least for periods of time, particularly around public holidays and birthdays,
as now instead of sitting idly watching they now Wii in front of the sofa, whilst
taking up any manner of sport accompanied by a very necessary item of equipment
– a can of beer! Well, standing still
playing tennis or golf does work up a thirst.
Mind you when they have improved their fitness levels sufficiently, they
can progress onto the dance programme and then they’ll never look back, couch
potatoes maybe will then have had their chips!!
As darkness fell the
beauty moved outside
Turning to more “poetic”
matters, we recently visited the local church for a wonderful Christmas
concert, given by a local quartet of very accomplished musicians, all English
and one an organ maestro with a string of recording and other credits to his
name. They have made this area their new
base, bringing even more culture to an already culture rich Southern
Vendée. The concert included a good
selection of Christmas music and a number of audience participation Christmas
songs sung with the verses alternating between French and English – entente
cordial in the flesh!
The church is long,
narrow and high as well as being like many French churches very ornate and full
of statues and carvings. However, unlike
many churches it is light and airy inside, partly due to the light coloured
stonework and the lack of much heavily ornate dark carved wood, but also due to
all the windows except for those behind the altar, being clear glass.
As we entered it was
cold outside, but the last vestiges of a bright winter afternoon were beginning
to fade, the sun however reflected off the buildings behind and through the
magnificent and very vibrantly coloured windows above the apse pouring coloured
light down into the assembled crowd.
The music started as
the daylight faded and it struck me that now those outside would be able to see
the splendour of the stained glass as the lights inside now shone into the
night outside – hence the title: As darkness fell the beauty moved outside.
What I noticed and did
when I went to Lourdes
Having just been in
church I’m sorry if this section appears a little irreverent, so apologies
beforehand to the more religious amongst you who might want to skip this
section. But, I’m afraid Lourdes didn’t do it for me
and I found much of the experience rather tacky – huge numbers of cheap tourist
shops selling cheap overpriced souvenirs, mostly plastic and I’m sure made in
Hong Kong or China. The final straw was
the large empty plastic bottles waiting to be filled with “Holy water”,
customised to say they were from Lourdes, but barely hiding the fact that they
were little more than lemonade or bulk detergent type bottles! Although, the shrine or grotte itself has
remained fairly simple and as such has a certain “air” to it and the more
ornate industry that had built up around it had to be admired to some extent
for its beauty, I’m sorry it didn’t move me, rather the opposite I came away
pleased on one hand to have been and seen, but on the other hand rather
depressed and wondering just how many of the thousands and thousands of people
who make pilgrimages there come away disappointed after many months of hope and
expectation. There was also something
about the thousands of candles burning everywhere and others piled up for
sale. They ranged from simple night
lights to enormous six foot plus edifices, with enormous price tags attached,
making me feel that the more money you were prepared to spent the greater your
chance of redemption or cure. Maybe, I’m
missing something, but to me that doesn’t seem very Christian. But, each to their own and if religion helps
some people so be it, for me I guess it’s a walk in the woods or along a
mountain top.
However, one of my
lasting impressions was a visit I made to the conveniences bordering the
Esplanade des Processions, which could well have been themselves described as
grotte, and contained one of the few sharps bins that I have ever seen in a
French convenience, giving them something of a seedy feel, although I’m sure
they were there not for a surfeit of druggies, but rather for the number of
people on sound and legal medication who came hoping to be cured, which
actually did little to lift my depression.
I suppose my next
thought, as I said somewhat irreverent, is really a case of black humour that I
sorely needed to lift the moment.
Standing there giving water rather than taking it away, I found myself
wondering how long it would be before my water left again in one of the rather tacky
plastic bottles I had seen earlier! I’m
sorry, but you were warned!
Armchair conservation!
This has got to be
quite simply the ultimate in armchair conservation, a true story recently reported
in the press and not on 01 / 04 / 2012!
A scientist obviously in the know recently visited a restaurant in
Vietnam and found in a tank, awaiting the choice of a discerning diner, a
previously unknown species of lizard!
Continuing the black humour theme, let’s hope that this wasn’t one of
the last pair in existence, its mate having been “chow meined” the night
before. Sorry, it’s obviously one of
those days!!
How these snippets
grow!
These snippets and many
others, be they thoughts, commentaries, observations call them what you will
all germinate with a similar process. Be
it an idea from a magazine, a newspaper cutting, a snippet of conversation, a
smell, a view, a likeness, a memory, a taste or even a déjà vue, they’re all
like lighting a fire – first the tiny spark deep in the paper and kindling,
which in time flares and bursts into flame, hopefully spreading warmth as they
go!
Then it’s simply a case
of burning to get it written down, or at least a firelighter of a snippet
jotted down for later in my little black book!
Hence the above, too
little to make into a full blog postings, but hopefully worth a brief mention
if only to cross out the growing number of entries in the book, because as you
get older it’s hard to keep up with what’s in your little black book!!
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