Life? Ain't it grand??
Aren't you just delighted that you are a
housewife/secretary/teacher/sky-diver/rocket scientist...???
As of Monday evening I'm unemployed... I can sit
around on my... bum and do nothing... it'll be great!! Except I've spent so
long getting up at what is known colloquially as "sparrow's fart"
that it'll probably continue until I do find some poor sod daft enough to give
me another job and I won't get to actually enjoy being a lady of leisure!
Having said that, given what is on TV during the
daytime I'm not sure that getting ANYTHING ASAP won't be a good idea! I
couldn't face a life where every day was a choice between 'Escape to the
sea/country/somewhere-else-I-wouldn't-be-caught-dead' and Jeremy-bloody-Kyle!
What kind of brain dead people are in charge of programming today that they
actually think such mental diarrhoea is entertainment? I mean, it’s not like we
aren't inundated with reality crap anyway, watching all manner of people go
about their daily lives only to find, after 13 weeks of 1hr programmes that
actually their lives aren't any more interesting than ours are! But no, we have
to have the residents of places like 'The Estate' or the cast of Shameless,
parading their lives as well as their pyjamas on national television telling
every man and his wife that their partner cheated on them, they cheated on
their partner, their parents were crap, their kids are crap, their previous
employer was mean to them and now they can't face getting another job and have
to live on DLA for the rest of their lives.... need I go on??
What happened to shame? What happened to
embarrassment? I'd be mortified if my kids took me on national TV and told the
world I was a crap parent, instead these people seem to go out of their way to
look scruffy & dirty, or slutty and spend the entire time shouting and
bullying one another! It makes me want to grab them by the collective lapels
and scream in their face, "you aren't here because it’s a good place for a
family day out; you are here because you have failed in the most basic of
life's tasks, being a decent human being to those around you!! Have a look at
your life, and while you are about it, have a bloody good look at your
wardrobe! Just because it has a jacket & trousers doesn't mean your pyjamas
are outdoor wear! Buy a pair of bloody jeans and a t-shirt, and get a decent
pair of trainers instead of sloppy boots that are trodden down at the heel! The
word 'slattern' was never more applicable than in some of the families paraded
before us every afternoon. And these people are exploited in the name of
entertainment, brought from their poor, shabby little lives and into our living
rooms to entertain us, make us laugh, make us look down on them and say 'well,
I may have my problems, but thank God I'm not as bad as they are!'
But are we?
If I spend my afternoon watching these families,
laughing at 'the state of them' and deriding their morals and activities what
am I? At best a voyeur, at worst I am a
part of the reason these people are there! If it nobody watched these
programmes the TV stations would soon stop airing them and these mothers and
daughters, husbands and sons could go back to their own lives and maybe get
some real help instead of a jumped up nobody shouting at them with the audience
ganging up behind him.
I've heard it said many times, if you aren't part
of the solution then you are part of the problem.
By watching Jeremy Kyle, Jerry Springer, Maury, Dr
Phil and any number of other 'chat shows' I'm not actually helping these people
therefore I must be part of their problem - part of the world looking down on
them and mocking instead of going to my neighbour and saying "I've noticed
you are struggling - how can I help?" Maybe people will reject me for it,
tell me to 'feck off' and accuse me of being a busy body or a goody two
shoes... but someone, someday will be glad, someone going under for the third
time will be grateful that someone held out a hand that contained a life vest
instead of a handful of rocks.
So instead of sitting on my butt doing nothing, I
think I'm gonna go and see the chap next door, he's recently had a leg
amputated and I bet his wife would like an afternoon off to go shopping while
someone else sits with him. And I can go and visit William, a 94 year old man I
met when I was in hospital the other week. We had a real good laugh while we
were in and I promised to visit - maybe I'll just do that!
I've been feeling so sorry for myself in recent
times, things seem to have been so bad since Christmas, but I'm still here, and
so are my husband and my son. My daughters are as beautiful as they always are
and I received so many happy birthdays that I was 'gob-smacked'... and not a
little warmed by them all. From 1.30am (thanks Ashleigh) to 23:51 (thanks
Richard) people were 'pinging' me all day... It doesn't half do you good to
realise how many people consider you a friend!
I'm gonna be part of the solution from now on,
I've spent 45 years thinking of me (and my family) time to think of the world!
Why don't you join me!?!
Anita 'new-leaf' Kelly
Belfast
