Thursday, April 20, 2006
Grumpy Old Man
The boy inside my head is alive and well, but there’s another lurking in there. He’s showing himself more and more these days, coming out from the dark corners of my mind where he lurks. He’s the impatient one, the one who has little time for hypocrisy or other’s failings. He grumps and complains, but cynically knows the world will never really change.
He came out in full force yesterday, running about in my mind for most of the day. It started in the morning as I drove to the train. A man guided a push chair across the road in front of me. A lovely site you might think, should be more of it. Yet it was no babe in the chair in front of him, but a girl that had to be six or seven. She was well dressed and clearly healthy.
So my own grumpy old man strode to the fore. It was a fine example of one of the things gone wrong with our society. How can we complain about an obesity epidemic when we let our children sit like mushrooms in front of the telly all day, or push them about in prams when they can clearly walk or run even (some days I can’t stop the boys from running, too much energy). When I was still grumping about it five minutes later as I parked the car I knew GOM was in control.
I grumped at everything yesterday, from the overly stewed tea I bought for the train, to the completely wasted first meeting of the day, to the poor dithering underling for whom I had to make a decision he was well capable of handling himself.
I’m not so nice when GOM is about. I think I pissed someone off in their blog too. At least the comment I posted never got turned live. In fairness my comment was more acid than whit, but it was a moderately introverted post. I know part of the point of the blogsphere is to allow one access to anonymous support and encouragement, but GOM won’t have it some days.
I think the boy has shooed GOM back in the dark corners of my mind today. At least I stopped and listened to the morning chorus, and checked out a newly opened Christmas Rose bud before jumping in the car to start the day’s commute. Life is more pleasant when the boy is on top.
He came out in full force yesterday, running about in my mind for most of the day. It started in the morning as I drove to the train. A man guided a push chair across the road in front of me. A lovely site you might think, should be more of it. Yet it was no babe in the chair in front of him, but a girl that had to be six or seven. She was well dressed and clearly healthy.
So my own grumpy old man strode to the fore. It was a fine example of one of the things gone wrong with our society. How can we complain about an obesity epidemic when we let our children sit like mushrooms in front of the telly all day, or push them about in prams when they can clearly walk or run even (some days I can’t stop the boys from running, too much energy). When I was still grumping about it five minutes later as I parked the car I knew GOM was in control.
I grumped at everything yesterday, from the overly stewed tea I bought for the train, to the completely wasted first meeting of the day, to the poor dithering underling for whom I had to make a decision he was well capable of handling himself.
I’m not so nice when GOM is about. I think I pissed someone off in their blog too. At least the comment I posted never got turned live. In fairness my comment was more acid than whit, but it was a moderately introverted post. I know part of the point of the blogsphere is to allow one access to anonymous support and encouragement, but GOM won’t have it some days.
I think the boy has shooed GOM back in the dark corners of my mind today. At least I stopped and listened to the morning chorus, and checked out a newly opened Christmas Rose bud before jumping in the car to start the day’s commute. Life is more pleasant when the boy is on top.
