FMS-Blog : The Wildly Whimsical, Mostly Musical WebLog
Sunday, August 27, 2006
What Life is For
My friend, Martin, is in the middle of his second epic cycling trip through Europe, this time following the Danube along its path through Germany, Austria and on to the Balkan states. He was initially travelling with another mutual friend, Robbie, but has now been left to complete the journey alone. Whenever he does these crazy trips I'm always intrigued to hear all about it when he returns but this time is different : thanks to the worldwide popularity of the internet, and to websites such as Blogger and MySpace, he has been able to publish an ongoing log of his activities that's open for anyone to read.
And when I flick through the entries of his blog it fills me with a mixture of concern for his safety, envy that he is getting to see so many wild and wonderful things while the rest of us get on with the monotony of everyday life in our hometowns, and more than anything else a renewed enthusiasm for a life beyond the realms of the 9-5 routine, the mortgage, the 2.4 kids, the Sky television, the Sunday shopping trips to Ikea and all the other paraphernalia that goes hand-in-hand with modern life in Western Europe. The fact is that there is SO much available to us in this life that we choose not to grasp - we have an enormous, beautiful planet full of interesting people and magnificent sights, sounds and smells that change with every passing breath and yet we mostly choose to ignore it in favour of a life being spoon-fed a whole bunch of lies about what will make us happy, from new shiny cars to the ultimate goal of shacking up and 'settling down' into a situation of self-perpetuating boredom that's over before we have time to consider that an alternative has always existed. I like to think that, rather than a glorification of drug-use, this is what Irvine Welsh and John Hodge were each in their own way trying to get at in the opening lines of Trainspotting :
No - when I read Martin's blog it inspires me to act on the knowledge that there is so much more I could be doing with my time than what coorporate UK would have me believe. It reminds me that the product we're being sold endlessly through our media and, by extension, through our peers is not what it seems : it will not bring the happiness and contentment that it promises. Of course, it's a free world so you can do what you like, but being a battery hen of the 21st Century isn't what Martin's life is for and it certainly isn't what mine is for.
And when I flick through the entries of his blog it fills me with a mixture of concern for his safety, envy that he is getting to see so many wild and wonderful things while the rest of us get on with the monotony of everyday life in our hometowns, and more than anything else a renewed enthusiasm for a life beyond the realms of the 9-5 routine, the mortgage, the 2.4 kids, the Sky television, the Sunday shopping trips to Ikea and all the other paraphernalia that goes hand-in-hand with modern life in Western Europe. The fact is that there is SO much available to us in this life that we choose not to grasp - we have an enormous, beautiful planet full of interesting people and magnificent sights, sounds and smells that change with every passing breath and yet we mostly choose to ignore it in favour of a life being spoon-fed a whole bunch of lies about what will make us happy, from new shiny cars to the ultimate goal of shacking up and 'settling down' into a situation of self-perpetuating boredom that's over before we have time to consider that an alternative has always existed. I like to think that, rather than a glorification of drug-use, this is what Irvine Welsh and John Hodge were each in their own way trying to get at in the opening lines of Trainspotting :
Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?
No - when I read Martin's blog it inspires me to act on the knowledge that there is so much more I could be doing with my time than what coorporate UK would have me believe. It reminds me that the product we're being sold endlessly through our media and, by extension, through our peers is not what it seems : it will not bring the happiness and contentment that it promises. Of course, it's a free world so you can do what you like, but being a battery hen of the 21st Century isn't what Martin's life is for and it certainly isn't what mine is for.
