How can you be …©
By
Michael Casey


I was thinking about what to talk about tonight, now that the sun has set, and I’ve slapped on the Movelat pain killer, my left shoulder audibly clicks now, but I’m going on like a cracked record, I know you just want the story. You just want me to lie on the bed while you use me. What? Hold the phone as Shrek might say. I do have you attention now. The question tonight is do you care or do you just want people to be robots and do your bidding.

I hate the self-service tills in shops, though Poundland is the only shop I use that has them, I buy my cheap toiletries there, why pay more? Self-service is no service, I want to share a laugh and a joke with the staff. Otherwise we all become soulless robots, which is a Czech word if memory serves. People  have personalities, and we all like to interact. The chair in the corner of the shop was there for a reason, it’s there that gossip is exchange, and a friend of a friend knows somebody who can do something for you at a reasonable price. Or you can pick up a card from a telephone box, Mandy Personal  Services, who’ll do anything you like for  a reasonable price, and  the off-chance of a visit to the clinic.

We all take others for granted, like the cleaner who comes into the office and tidies our mess. Though some of the best conversations I’ve had have been with cleaners, as I always worked Twilight shifts. Yes I know, I must be a Vampire, you are all so very very obvious. Though I do awake every 2 hours like a Vampire once I’ve squeeze past the sentry that is called Tinnitus. So take it from me, talk to your cleaners, you never know they might come and clean your own house too, freeing you to do the ironing, or they might do it for you. Yes you have to pay them, but you can be upstairs with the boyfriend pretending to be Mandy, see a perfect circle.

How can we not notice the flowers growing, are we just too busy on our phones playing games instead of looking at real life all around us. It’s 17th April 2019 now, so Spring has sprung. I look at the flowers I’ve planted and watch our bush sprout, renewed life and hope. Greenery from dead wood, life sprouting anew. It really is a wonderful thing. Not just because it’s my first fruits at the new house, my transplanted Shamrock have started  to grow at the back of the house, and I’m watching to see if they grow in the front garden  too. My pansies are beginning to fade but some rose stems appear to be growing. My daughter had flowers at Valentines, so after 2 weeks in a vase I  stripped and  chopped the stems and  shoved them in the front garden. And now they seem to be growing, if everything works we will have red roses growing in our front garden. Have I inherited my mother’s green fingers?

Flowers are inanimate objects, but they do fill us with hope and love. So think how important it is to nurture friendships. Say hello to the little old lady on the bus, or who pushes that trolley past you every day. Don’t be a wall. Say hello to the tasty Asian girl who parks outside your house, or to that big Black bodybuilder, or that red haired Gay boy with the beard who you really really fancy. Or stop that Priest and hear his confession outside  the butchers. We all need to interact and share our pain and love, if God’s too busy saving Notre Dame, we have to help ourselves, as God helps those who help themselves.

How can we be like stone, unmoving to Life? Switch off those mobile phones, and talk to somebody, make love to the cleaner. Literally and figuratively. Before the only mark we make on stone is our dates of birth and dates of death, an empty life  just like a stone.