Right, so the Paralympics are now on. But strangely enough so is X Factor. There's an eerie transition from the most extraordinary summer in London (albeit one of the rainiest ever), when people have felt just a bit more alive (there isn't actually one person I spoke to who hasn't been deeply moved and excited by the Olympics and the events of London 2012), to that time of the year when days are feeling colder and X Factor is on TV again. It almost feels like... has it really happened?
I have nostalgia for lingering. Sometimes it feels like we ought to linger a bit more on the great events of life. And yet in London, things just carry on moving like on a production line. Olympics have hardly finished and soon enough there is nothing on TV about it. It's back to talks on taxes and property prices. The Paralympics are now on and we almost want to relive the Olympics fever but it feels like it's been left to go cold for too long and we're almost back to our usual numbness. I wonder if it's because the Paralympics are such a humbling experience. It doesn't feel right to be cheering one athlete against another because every single athlete there is a real life hero that ought to be sanctified. People that make us feel small and petty. Because we still complain about the weather, work, love life, lack of it, sex, the quality of our broadband. Even though we have all our limbs and all our senses, there are things we still moan about and that realisation of our spiritual smallness almost makes us turn on the TV and watch X Factor instead.
Yes, I want to linger a bit. I want to take some time and think about the good things that happened this summer. I want to take some time and think about what I want my future to bring and how am I going to turn the experiences of the past into inspiration for the future. But I can't, because life in London is like a big tsunami which just takes you away and drowns you into the everyday. And before you know it, it's that time of the year again...
I have nostalgia for lingering. Sometimes it feels like we ought to linger a bit more on the great events of life. And yet in London, things just carry on moving like on a production line. Olympics have hardly finished and soon enough there is nothing on TV about it. It's back to talks on taxes and property prices. The Paralympics are now on and we almost want to relive the Olympics fever but it feels like it's been left to go cold for too long and we're almost back to our usual numbness. I wonder if it's because the Paralympics are such a humbling experience. It doesn't feel right to be cheering one athlete against another because every single athlete there is a real life hero that ought to be sanctified. People that make us feel small and petty. Because we still complain about the weather, work, love life, lack of it, sex, the quality of our broadband. Even though we have all our limbs and all our senses, there are things we still moan about and that realisation of our spiritual smallness almost makes us turn on the TV and watch X Factor instead.
Yes, I want to linger a bit. I want to take some time and think about the good things that happened this summer. I want to take some time and think about what I want my future to bring and how am I going to turn the experiences of the past into inspiration for the future. But I can't, because life in London is like a big tsunami which just takes you away and drowns you into the everyday. And before you know it, it's that time of the year again...
Hey,
ReplyDeleteCheck out my blog about how London is helping me get over a break up:
http://lucypea.blogspot.co.uk/
I'm a newbie, please let me know what you think. :-)
There is something about the arrival of X Factor (and Strictly Come Dancing) on our tv screens that signifies the imminence of autumn and winter, isn't there? And this year it's even harder to accept after the non-summer we've had!
ReplyDeleteIndeed it is. It may have been a non-summer but it was an incredible summer too :)
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