When was the last time you fed the ducks without the company of a little person? By that I don't mean a vertically-challenged-but-just-as-equal humanoid, rather a person who has yet to grow up to be a real, life-sized, person and is still in the stages of innocence and bed-wetting. Maybe a better question would be when did you last watch the sun rise? Strange questions I know, but not altogether bizarre. So much of what we do nowadays is about where it will get us, goal orientated for those of you who understand management-speak. But what about if you're the goalie, holding it up for the rest of the team because you're not quite as fit as the rest and to be perfectly honest you just can't be arsed? Goalie's get a rough ride in life.
Work-life balance. What! How dare they? It's like telling a goldfish that it should have a productivity to existence ratio! To which any sensible goldfish wouldn't reply. It basically comes down to getting you, the beautiful, sensitive, intelligent being, to work harder. Cracking the whip, you might say.
I was listening to Radio 4 recently and heard a program about people who'd bought their own islands. The idea was generally the same: escape the rat race, set up island, enjoy parties with the local women clad in hula hula skirts and peeling one's grapes. It didn't work out this way, believe it or not and most of the breakaways sounded more like Man Friday than, "Man, it's Friday!" They were also a bit narked at all the hard work that went into building one's dream home on an stone in the middle of the turbulent Atlantic ocean.
There are alternatives. One can, of course, join a commune, become a monk, start a farm or work at a university. However, these lifestyle choices are often short ventures because they are so far removed from normal life and so extreme. If our neighbours were more open to different ways of living and we were not economically shackled from birth there would be more scope for the evolution of modern society and the development of the soul. We can but dream.
So take a minute out to admire the beauty of nature, then get back to work you lazy sod!
