Mortality

I don’t usually leave a week between blog posts, but I’ve not been near my computer for almost six days due mostly to ill health for the latter half. I’ve had the forgotten delights of dihorea diaroea diarrhoea  a tummy upset from something I’ve eaten, and was certainly fully aware of an old joke which goes along the lines of –

Three old  men were chatting over a beer in a bar discussing what the fastest thing on earth is. The first one said “Its electricity – the second you press the light-switch the light goes on, so that must be the fastest thing!”  The second guy shook his head, “No, you’re wrong” he said “It’s thought, that’s faster than electricity!” The third guy shook his head sadly at the other two, and said “You’re both wrong!”. He looked wisely at them and said “It’s diarrhoea, because as soon as you’ve thought about it, and put the light on, its too late!”

I was sadly reminded of that joke this week, having spent most of Tuesday night doing the dash to the loo, and Wednesday feeling drained – pun intended! Its difficult not to put puns into diarrhoea jokes, and personally, I don’t give a shit……… see what I mean? 🙂

Anyyyyyway, getting off that too graphically disgusting of subjects, and personally feeling very grateful to the benefits of Imodium, I am feeling my normal self again today, and am full of my usual bursts of energy which have been sadly lacking for three days. And three days is nothing, really, in the full measure of things, of a life. But, I still was reminded in that time how much we take our bodies for granted, and forget that time marches on, and sometimes the best laid plans are brought to an abrupt halt. All the more so because last week I heard of someone else’s ill health, which is far more serious than my little blip, and also met up with another someone who has many ongoing health issues but stays positive, upbeat and is always delightful company when I’m with her. As well as that I happened to watch a programme on TV over the Easter weekend which featured the gorgeous Richard Hammond (sigh, hasn’t he got sexy eyes?) of Top Gear talking to Stirling Moss, the racing driver, both of whom had bad car accidents at top speeds whilst working and being filmed. Richard Hammond talked of his own accident, and how it left him looking all right on the outside but knowing that he wasn’t thinking straight, and he asked Stirling Moss if he had the same problems with his accident in the early sixties. The thing that stuck out most for me was that Stirling Moss said that he had been the top racing driver, and then he’d had his accident, had been off the race track for the months it took to get himself better, then went back to test himself to see if he could still drive in the same manner. And found that he couldn’t. The things that he took for granted- the split second decisions to drive a racing car at high speed, he couldn’t do anymore, he had to consciously think about them now, and that isn’t how a racing driver drives. And he was forced to make the agonising decision not to race anymore. So when people congratulated him on how “Lucky” he was to survive the terrrible crash, his reaction was – “Lucky? What’s *Lucky* about not being able to race any more when you’re a top racing driver?” And I can see his point, totally, because that’s how I use my artistic talents, from years of experience, knowing without thinking how to apply colour, what needs adjusting in a painting I’m doing to make it better, to improve on it. Ok, its not to the standard of a top racing driver, but it is intuitive based on being born with a talent, honing my skills, working on diverse and different subjects, practising and practising, and knowing instinctively how to do something.

  So, as always, its sometimes the little set backs that make you realise how good things are generally.

I’m feeling full of the joys of spring again, and am featuring a photo I took when I was in Japan a few years ago. This was the first cherry blossom of that year, in a Tokyo park, and having seen for myself how the Japanese revere the blossoms as a celebration of the start of spring after the bleakness of winter, can totally understand how it heralds new beginnings, and happy thoughts. Which is how I’m feeling this week, full of the joys of spring and ready to bounce back. Helped of course by the fact a woman rang earlier who wants to commission me to paint her pets for her. All five of them!