Waves



CoVID-19 Day 23

Following the sinusoidal Easter weekend with its positive and negative highs, intense analysis and introspection, its perhaps not surprising that my morning began dark. "What is the point of all this" was the overriding feeling especially after a conversation wading through a bleak financial landscape. My first response was to put on my shoes and head for the beach but instead I picked up my guitar.

I decided to record a song I enjoy playing then post to the internet and hopefully lift someone's day. My beach walk would have been better served by turning my brain off and just taking in the time and space. Instead I tried writing a song by repeating nonsense in a beat I wouldn't normally compose in. I got back feeling as stressed as I left. I'd not wound down but I was ready to apply myself and got down to it.

just as an aggressive parasite will kill its host,
the neoliberal elite may well have strangled their golden goose

At midday I had a long phone conversation around housing and urban gardening, talking about local economies, regeneration and holistic progress in areas of depravation and low expectation. CoVID-19 could be the game changer, the dividing line between the past acceptance of a failed economic model and the future prospect of demanding a more inclusive and sustainable one. It ended in voicing a desire for programmes that would leave a legacy rather than a huge footprint.

That remained with me in a mood of cautious optimism. A subsequent conversation that I was tempted to postpone further, lifted the mood as it went much better than I'd expected. I'm now weary but its late enough to consider bed without the complication of waking at a ridiculous hour.

I'm still in a precarius position, not knowing how I'll come out of this crisis. And from what I'm picking up there is likely to be considerable distress in communities across the nation and the globe in the coming months. The little resilience we had in 2008 is now looking more stretched and any prospect of a bounce back has been pretty much scuppered by the dismantling of the forces of moderation over the last few decades.

It could be that while it will, as ever, hit the poorest and weakest most this could fatally wound the neoliberal agenda of Reagan and Thatcher that has effectively reduced us to a feudal system and just as an aggressive parasite will kill its host, the neoliberal elite may well have strangled their golden goose. Meanwhile the government continues to betray the nation while her Majesty's opposition implodes.

Tomorrow is Wednesday and its only the first day of our working week. What happened to the last four days.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm Fine

I had a heart for dreams A head for heights Not risk averse Not one for scripts Or destinations life predicts But with no desire to wake Afraid to fall Or to rehearse Fluffing every line Eyes on the map, missing every sign Being untrained and unprepared I hit the rocks And what is worse I could not own Whatever I'd defused or I had blown I was subdued by guilt Who knows what for A petrifying curse Where every corner hides a threat Round which no expectation might be met Its hard to change Or shed a skin Forsake the nurse Detach the safety line Append no 'but' when I reluctantly declare "I'm fine" © Chris Price 2016
Read more

A Lib Dem in the Coalition for Marriage

Image
I would like to point out that this is not party political and I'm comparing my position to that of the Lib Dems within the government coalition and not with respect to any policy. It seems the coalition are committed to allowing gay couples to officially get married. While civil partnerships are recognised in this country they don't have the status of a married couple. This is considered by many to be unfair. After all, if we are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual preference in the larger arena of public life then why should gay couples be treated any differently than heterosexual couples? This makes a good deal of sense and people of all persuasions can only presume that any resistance to gay marriage can only be a homophobic reaction born of ignorance or religious dogma. The fact that the church is the main voice of opposition only strengthens this opinion with the danger that the established church is seen as increasingly out of touch with society and irrele
Read more

God Doesn't Care

Image
photo © Sarah Klockars-Clauser for openphoto.net CC:Attribution-ShareAlike I hear people say, "God won't let you down." But we know from experience that he does. He will stand you up at the street corner. He will ignore your prayer, allow you to screw up and to completely embarrass yourself. Jesus explicitly said that we would experience trouble in the world, that we would be ill treated and killed for being his friend. 11 of the 12 Apostles were murdered for honouring Jesus - counting Paul as an Apostle that makes 12 out of 12. If you're counting on life going smoothly, don't look to God. If you watch bank adverts with a critical eye you will realize that they all offer you the same thing, precisely nothing, wrapped up with fancy ribbons. They have no vested interest in your happiness. They only need to lure you into the net so they can use and abuse you and spit you out when you're no more use to them. You will find individuals and branches more or less hel
Read more