‘It’s all about finding the joys in life and in yourself.’
If in doubt, start with a quote. Obviously, my regular reader will know immediately that I bear no claim to the above! It does bring me joy, though, particularly of the humorous kind. So much so that I had to stop and add it to my phone notes as I browsed the Biography section in Waterstones. They walked behind me, two young girls – students, obviously, with their tote bags slung over their shoulders containing their pristine notebooks and future academic prowess. At once, so sheltered and naive, the green behind their ears all enveloping, I couldn’t help but smile as I heard the well-spoken voice utter the words above to her friend. She was deadly serious and, moreover, I totally agree with her. It’s just the way she said it, laced with so much innocence – and belief. I envy her that. Once upon a time …
The gift of words. Eyes may be windows to the soul but words – and one’s choice of – can reveal so much more. Compare and contrast: the two lovely young students who passed me by in Waterstones yesterday and the three drunken louts from Aberdeen who fell out of the restaurant opposite where Becca was sitting chatting to her friend the other evening in one of Monti’s characterful little streets in Rome. They just had to be Scottish! Anyway, spying their witness, they came over to chat to Becca, volunteering their dislike for Rome. Tempted by cheap flights, they thought they might as well give it a go but, quite honestly, they found it a pile of rubble! Becca and I were laughing as she recounted the scene to me on the phone, partly in disbelief but, more in dismay that, once again, the Scottish stereotype rang true. One of them, then, asked her what she did? A teacher. Ah, of what? History. The response, to that fact, one couldn’t write. Well, perhaps someone of Ricky Gervais’ calibre could but … wait for it!
‘How long do you think history will last?‘
Genius. I’m not sure there are sufficient exclamation marks to do justice to a remark which is, at once, a howler of a contradiction in itself, never mind its glaring ignorance! It’s so incredible, it’s hilarious. Picture these three young guys in the Eternal City, its every contour a museum to life spanning back two thousand years; a wealth of ancient monuments and ruins, revered – and rightly so – for providing the very foundations upon which much of modern society was built today. Granted, for some, the magnitude of Rome is hard to grasp: its history; its relevance. That aside, its beauty, alone, is magical. The majestic buildings displaying hues of amber and terracotta, shutters of green and climbing foliage offering little flowers of pink … The narrow, cobbled streets which never fail to claim a welcoming piazza at their end; the ambience, the buzz, the sound of people, living life! The galleries and museums, the culture which abounds; the shops. Rome. How can anyone fail to appreciate? Not want to return? A pile of rubble?! Suppose, if you go straight from the airport to inebriation …
So, the naive optimism of the young students in a bookshop and the ignorance of the drunken young guys in Rome. Worlds apart in every way, yet both part of life’s ever-changing tapestry; both revealing of so much in their words. Have I ever mentioned how much I love quotes?! I am forever pausing to note them down – books, films, television, from wherever. Nothing more irritating than watching something on television with me when I have control of the remote! Words. Keys to the imagination.
‘A book is the best movie you will ever see.’.
Nick Ferrari
In a world in which people no longer look up, rather glued to a screen, brain-numbed to the brainwashing, how many give even a passing thought to reading a book? Only yesterday, my ears pricked to a discussion of how children, today, are increasingly struggling to master the art! With bedtime stories regarded as positively archaic, consigned to history by many, a third of children are starting school still in nappies, for goodness sake, oblivious to the concept of the two ‘R’s. What hope? What failure! Children are deserving of more. Parents have a responsibility. Too busy chained to the rhythm … As successive generations bring themselves up, the screen their only guardian, the art of reading fades into the distant past. The imagination, like the spleen, added to the list of the redundant. Children – and adults – must be spoon-fed, now. Instructed as to what to think; what to say; what to believe. No room for error. All must think alike, uniformity, the key. Devoid of imagination, there is no thought to question. Imagination. Springboard to the stars, protector from the hurt. For, in one’s head, the possibility of escape from harsh reality knows no bounds, imagination one’s trusted vessel.
Failure to nurture the imagination is akin to removing the birds from the sky, the leaves from the trees; turning all that once was colour into black and white. Gripped by the mundane, every problem becomes insurmountable, centre to an empty stage. It seems there is no escape … but there is! It lies in the pages of a book, the words catalysts to a much-needed gentler world. Every child has the right to believe in fairy tales, at least for a while; the innocence of these formative years not only a vital stay of execution but a protective shell against the future slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Words and imagination are inextricably linked. To underestimate the importance of reading is foolhardy, particularly now in this world of AI. Pen and paper are already all but obsolete, the need to/ the ability to write a thing of the past. No more letters, no postcards, no Christmas cards, replaced by emails and texts, lost forever to the iCloud in the sky! Everything disposable. Nothing which lasts. Footprints in the sand.
Books, though … we must never lose them, which brings me on to the ubiquitous mental health crisis. Is it any wonder? For my part, I would replace every blood-sucking pharmaceutical company churning out anti-depressants like sweets with a library! For words fire the imagination; stories inspire. Windows to another world, books are the perfect panacea for stress, the silent killer which pervades all lives today. Step away from the screen. Put down that hand-held, brain-washing device which is monitoring your every move and open a book – and, please, not one with ‘self’ in the title! The only way to fight this digital takeover, effectively destroying the art of living, is to strip back and champion the simplicity of old before it’s too late. ‘ … and they all lived happily ever after’.
‘A dream is a wish your heart makes.’ Charles Perrault, ‘Cinderella’.
For a second, one dares to believe … The power of words.
This is Trish, signing off
