Patriot Realm

What have we got today? Friction, Frustration and Futility.  

How far we have fallen.From fun to fear in a few fractured figments of falsehoods. 

My niece has just celebrated her 30th birthday. Surrounded by friends and family, she smiled and laughed and sparkled in the light of a place of friendship, fellowship and frivolity.

I remembered my 30th  birthday, when my dear friend, a girl called Emily Jane, a native of Knoxville Tennessee; had given me a rubber innertube and said that everyone aged 30 has a spare tyre. I laughed and accepted it graciously and promised, very quietly,  that I would have my revenge on Emily Jane. 

I took up jogging.  I was pretty unfit and my first jog was about 500 metres up the road. Each day, I went to another lamp post and another lamp post before starting my tortured stagger back home to collapse and grab a Stella Artois beer and hear my daughters welcome words of " Mum! You can do it! You went two lamp posts further than yesterday! "

yeah well that was not me. I was not that lady. But that is what I wanted to be. 

Everything became measured in lamp posts and I jogged, staggered, walked and gasped until,  one day,  I was actually jogging and breathing and enjoying what I was doing. Within 6 months, I was jogging 10 km without breaking a sweat and I used to stop and gaze upon the water and marvel at the beauty of the place in which I was privileged to live.

not me. Just an image I found on line. 

I would stop and chat with passers by and then head off again through the Tanglewood Track and, 20 km later, cruise home and feel good. So good. I would cook the dinner for the family and do the chores, do my job and wait to have another run tomorrow. 

I was not obsessed with running. I just enjoyed the freedom that it gave me and the joy of feeling the friendship of those I met on my jog; the fellowship of the joggers I met on the way and the frivolity of doing something that gave no one else any pleasure except myself.

One day, about 9 months later, my husband ( now ex husband) gave me a watch. It could check my heart rate and my speed and how long it took me to complete my run through the Noosa National Park . 

" Excellent " I thought.

not me. But you get my drift.  

I put the watch on and went for my run. I found myself stopping to check my watch, my time. My heart rate. I stopped talking with the passers-by. I stopped laughing with my fellow joggers.

It all became about the time. I stopped running for friendship, fellowship, frivolity, and most importantly, I stopped running for fun.

One day, I got back home and I realised that my daughters no longer laughed when I came home. There was no more joy. Fellowship.  It had simply become a thing I did to see if I could beat the clock; run faster than someone else or run faster than I had run before.

I remember going and sitting by the river and thinking " what am I doing? Why am I running? Who am I trying to beat? "

Now, this is where it gets interesting.

Instead of throwing that bloody watch in the river, I gave up running.

I had the joy taken out of my life, my jogs. All because of someone who felt that my run was about how long it would take to get back to my starting place. 

That is what is wrong with the world today. 

The joy we felt in running, jogging, walking or even limping or staggering to our goal has been stolen. All we have now is fear. 

By deadlines and flatten the curve AND ROLL OUT THE VACCINE AND who knows what next, we no longer have friendship, fun or frivolity. It is all about that awful watch that ticks constantly and tells us that if we do not do this by this date, have a jab asap or stay in lockdown for a few days longer... we no longer want to run.

In fact, the joy has been taken out of life.

All because of a watch that someone gave us in the form of a QR code, a Government decree, or a directive that has stopped us running and turned us into cripples.

I never ran again. never jogged again. That watch destroyed the love I had for the freedom of being on the open track and enjoying the smell of the air and the fellowship of other travellers on the road we call LIFE. I did gift wrap the innertube and give it back to Emily Jane on her 30th birthday. And we laughed and enjoyed our friendship, fellowship and frivolity.

Fellowship is about caring. Friendship is about caring. Frivolity is a joke shared and a light hearted exchange of mutual enjoyment, whether it be on a blog or at a point on a track overlooking a swirling sea and waves crashing on rocks and saying " isn't that marvellous? " and hearing your fellow traveller respond " yes."

Today. we get a " where's your mask?  Or a well intentioned " mind your own business."

Monty said to me earlier today " the minute we mind our own business is the day we have no business and that will be the day that our business has no business at all. "