A Life in the Day of a Couch Potato
A reader,
Helen, has kindly written in to say she and her family enjoy my poetry and she
thinks my blogs I deserve more followers. Well, thanks a lot, Helen, encouragement is always
welcome. Poetry, though, is not everyone’s cup of tea and I am just happy that
the blogs are still going strong after six years via my Google Plus site that links to new and historical posts/poems. I have set the statistics
so Google does not count my own views; this gives me a clearer picture of
readership.
Now,
today’s little poem was written way back in 1979. Sadly, it strikes me as being even more relevant now than it was then. A neighbour had been complaining to me
about retirement, saying how he missed ‘the buzz of real life’ because all
there was for the likes of retired people was a second hand existence by
courtesy of television and cinema. I suggested keeping up with friends, getting
out and about and doing things, going places…pleasures for which we often have
little or no time when working full-time and/or bringing up a family…? (Mind
you, we need to make time.) He simply shrugged and went
indoors to watch an afternoon soap opera.
No, I’m
not knocking TV, or the fact that we live in a Digital Age, but now I am retired myself, I enjoy keeping up with friends, getting out and about and doing things,
going places…the simple pleasures for which it was often hard making time for when
working.
Following
a bad fall in summer 2014, I was housebound for months and spent a good
year or so learning to walk again. I live alone so TV was a great comfort and
companionship (of sorts) in between writing up the blogs, three sessions of
(ten) physiotherapy exercises a day and chatting to friends who were kind
enough to drop by and help out on a regular basis all the while I could barely
walk. I missed getting out and about and do so now as much as I can; even
though walking is still quite painful, I have a sturdy oak walking stick, and
it is always worth making the effort.
So when I
talk to young people rushing home to spend hours on social media, I can’t help
feeling they are missing out…
No, I am
not knocking on-line social networking, but there can be no substitute
for real-life, face to face companionship and banter among friends, not to
mention getting out and about in the sunshine…can there? Now I am older (71)
and less mobile, it is harder to get out and about and meet people, but (still) always worth making the effort.
Social media. the world wide web, TV...all have a place in our lives, of course they do, but no one's real life balance should be tipped in their favour...surely?
Yes, cyber fun can be good fun, but there's no fun quite like sharing fun in the real-life company of friends, forming and developing interpersonal skills that can teach us as much about ourselves as other people, and will see us though the best part of a lifetime. Oh, and it really isn't a case of you can't teach an old dog new (digital) tricks; this old dog knows a few, and all the better for having learned a good few of the non-digital variety...
A LIFE IN THE DAY OF A COUCH POTATO
Little
birds singing on the garden wall
I’ll not
write you up;
you’re, too
sentimental
for the
Age, they say
As one to
another you brightly call
I’ll shut
the window;
a new
soap opera's about
to start
on TV
Bright
sunlight distorting everything
Screen-lined
faces
like
grotesque cartoons
in a Hall
of Mirrors
Let's
close the curtains, better already
Comfortable now...
with armchair perspectives
on the world
with armchair perspectives
on the world
Copyright
R. N. Taber 2001; 2017
[Note:
This poem has been revised since it first appeared under the title 'To a Sunny Day' in Love and Human
Remains by R. N. Taber,
Assembly Books, 2001.]
Labels: alternative, choices, comfort, couch, health, human, life, mental, nature, personal, physical, poetry, potatoes, reality, risks, society, space, unhealthy, well-being, zone
posted by R. N. Taber | 08:03
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