There was a time when as I drove to the shops, out of the corner of my eye I used to see, a band of people who belonged to another planet, a different world to the one I inhabited. They shuffled along the pavement with shopping bags, heading for the same shop but moving at a very different pace. They were largely the old, the retired, mixed with a sprinkling of the unemployed!! A shadowy world of the underclass going about their business amidst the fast moving mobile workforce. Don’t spare a dime, spare a thought for those people whose lives have seen better times, who once commanded the height of attention, are now reduced to a transparency.,
The old who used to be revered for their experience, for the nuggets of common sense which fell from their lips, are now a drain on the Exchequer. What a sorry lot we have become in our striving for a life valued by a post code, a brand name, the club and the number of stars on the holiday hotel.
Having now entered the grey world of the retired person, shopping bag clutched in my hand I have just returned from a trip to Sainsbury’s. The sky cloudless, the air gently warm it was a lovely day to walk the mile or so to the shop. We live in a suburb, houses criss- crossed with quiet roads and pathways zigg zagging through the suburban sprawl. When one slows to a walk from the urgency of a car journey the eyes take in so much more of what is around us and the mind springs into action with thoughts about this and that. “ We are stimulated by the sense of being alive, through the living experience around us”.
The trees are still wearing their green leaves although the ground is beginning to be carpeted with dead brown ones. Nature prepares for winter and we optimistically look towards Spring to renew our faith. Kids kick a football on the Green or shoot around on their bikes, unaware that the economy is going down the pan! The scale of the place makes each event our own and gives us the opportunity to gain a benefit through living and reflecting.
JOHN
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