Did you ever wonder why we read so many newspapers and why people like me go to the bother of writing down the weekly happenings from our village? If the truth be known, there’s feck all that happens around here but if I wrote that sure ye’d be awful disappointed. Truth is, ye expect something to happen every week.
I decided to look back over some of the headlines in the newspapers over these last few weeks and, indeed, my own column as well. The experts tell us it’s good to look back, reflect on things, have a look at ourselves now and again, instead of always lookin’ at the feckin’ neighbours and wonderin’ what they’re at. Feck all is what they’re at, usually watchin’ us and what we’re at. Anyway, I was lookin’ back over things and I was struck by the amount of repetition, the sameness of it all, (young Doherty, the PhD student, reckons a man’s intelligence can be gauged by the amount of ‘ness’ words he uses ). I’m sure it has not gone unnoticed that I use a fair few myself. Anyway, the sameness of things struck me, every single paper has a load of bad news, some good news, and a fair amount of celebrity shite. It struck me that there’s predictability about the news: we know it will be mainly bad news. You’d wonder why we’re drawn to it. Is it reassuring for us to see how misfortune is visited on others while our worlds survive unchanged?
‘Change’ must be one of the most overused words in our vocabulary, it’s thrown around all the time as if change is happening all the time, but there’s a real difference between real change and the perception of change. Change is something the weather does, people seldom change even though they might often claim it. Change is too frightening for most.
I have been livin’ here in the village for many decades now and I haven’t seen even a handful of people change. Yes, lots of things have changed, but the people haven’t. The houses are much bigger now, as are the cars, and there’s less people livin’ in every house, there’s less people going to Mass; a few natives have returned over the years and some have left; everyone in the village has a lawnmower now and the Tidy Village committee has the place lookin’ mighty but, sure, what has changed beyond all these externals? Feck all, and if I was a reckless eejit I could start at the bottom of the village and work my way, house by house, and let ye know how each generation repeats the attitudes and mistakes of the ones that went before. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if it’s all in the genes.
Anyway, the only people I ever saw changing were people who had misfortune and suffering thrown their way. The rest don’t change. Life is about not changing unless you have to because we have this ferocious appetite for consistency and we’re afraid of it. And now I, too, am repeating myself. I have said this all before. Yes, we have this eternal propensity to repeat ourselves and achieve very little in our small lives.
I suppose when you think about it, it’s no wonder we like to see the news night after night, no wonder we continue to repeat the mistakes of the past, no wonder we do the same things we got used to growing up and no wonder we try to recreate everything we’ve been used to wherever we go. What we crave in our small little lives is repetition and consistency, but we do like to hear about change in the lives of others. Any news? Don’t bother askin’!
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