Well the volcanic ash grounded the planes and people got stuck in places all over the globe. Why they couldn’t have got a few helicopters to stretch a big tarpaulin over the smoke plume and stop the ash going high up into the atmosphere and disrupting the planes I don’t know. Sometimes I wonder if there’s anyone with a bit of common sense in charge. From the thousands of passengers who got stranded it just shows the amount of people that are jettin’ around the world every day. What in the name of God is bringing them all over the place?
Some travellers managed to rediscover the relaxed pace of travelling by ferry, while others got lifts from fellow travellers. Every now and again we get a reminder about the fact that we share this world with others, some of them decent enough, generous, and not completely caught up in their own narrow worlds. It takes adversity and difficulties to drag us from our hiding places and make us pull together.
Anyway everyone survived it but a lot of people got completely stressed and will now be looking for decent compensation. The travelling public now have expectations: arriving in a different place at a certain time is now your right. Arriving is not an achievement anymore. God be with the days when you’d travel with CIE and you would never heed timetables, we all knew they were just a rough guess about when you could expect to arrive in a place. Speed is what’s demanded now. We get everywhere faster and the theory is we get more done, we achieve more and we are more productive. Well I have seen many people over the years take their time and they still got things done. The people that were getting all stressed out waiting for them got heart attacks and stomach problems. There’s far too much value placed on being busy these days. The reason is simple, people think they’re important if they’re busy and other people think busy people are important.
I often think the freest time any of us ever have is when we are waiting for something whether it’s a bus, a plane, the doctor, a tradesman or someone else. We never use this free time but just sit or stand around giving out about the waste of time. Waiting is seen as a waste of valuable time. Do you know I remember a day when we had phones but we didn’t bother using them but called in on people if we wanted to talk to them. Sure part of the reason for calling into people was you wouldn’t know who you’d meet or what craic you’d have. People ring ahead now so they don’t waste time. Journeys nowadays are always about getting places and doing things, journeys are now a means to an end and have little or no value in themselves. I always found that journeys were great for thinking things out, but I suppose most people have switched off from thinking and reflecting these days; the television helps them to do their thinking and reflecting, and celebrities help everyone with their aspirations, dreams, and values.
Have we sold out, handed over our freedom and bought ourselves time in a maximum security prison with celebrity, TV, and officialdom? Is there anyone who can break the silence? Is there anyone out there who is still free, who is uncontaminated?
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