A JOLLY WANNABE SPECIE

I have blogged previously on the knack our specie has for celebration. Yesterday’s event reminded me even more. What more can I say than to wish the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge a happy married life? Like a fairy tale, may they live happily together after all the pageantry and royalty of their nuptials. They have done well in reminding us of the institution of marriage and what it stands for.


Much of the talk in the circle I found myself yesterday was on the persons of the bride and the groom: William’s unspoken carriage that translates into the fact he understands the gravity of his overall responsibility; Kate’s display as an individual at peace with herself. We are reminded to know who we really are, to appreciate our opportunities and extol the sense of responsibility that come with them, to enjoy being ourselves and to lead our lives. These virtues, almost infectious, are readily identifiable by others and go a long way in the manner we are responded to.

Back to the drift of mankind towards the giggly, what happened to all the British apathy to royalty after Princess Diana’s death? Yesterday, I saw a people known for public self control let loose in an unprecedented manner. May be it’s that thing in us wanting to identify with something good and jolly. As far as I was, on April 29, 2011, I surely ‘pitched my tent’ with the popular and cheerful.

A YEAR, AMBITIONS AND LIFE AS USUAL

It has been a year to the day since I relocated and essentially changed my employer. I am at home at the end a tiring day and I reflectively look at my life in the last year. I think I settled to my new environment and work place pretty fast. This was with a sense of more definiteness in my actions than I have ever really had. Life was a new challenge for me then, but I was older and more wisely poised.


Most of the big decisions in the last year have been much schemed from the past. It was as if I was acting out my own script really. Very little has stunned me and my over all outlook has a bit of recluse now. So everyone who considers my demeanor distant lately must now also know that it’s not borne out of hard feelings. And I am certainly not in the middle having that crisis!

As I look at the world today, I see competition, more competition among my peers and a chase for even greater vanity. People seem to be in a hurry to a destination just to be able to hold up their pride of accomplishment. These aside, I have also seen dreams come true and observed my internal alarms reset towards the path to a new equilibrium.

Life is a continuous after all. That fellow was right when he said human wants are insatiable. Someone has also said life is not contained in accomplishments but in the ideas and ideals we live by. How true.

"IT’S HAND WASHING WEEK"

I was almost amused when folks from the department of health came around to my work place earlier this week. They sure left a mark by the time they left: every available space was riddled with posters that read “it’s hand washing week”, “have you washed your hand today?” and specifically over every hand washing basin was stuck a sticker with two hands ; as if we did not know the wash hand basin was meant for hand washing!


My amusement came into play when I imagined how differently I might have interpreted a hand-washing week if I had no knowledge of infection control in the workplace. For one, it will mean “ceremonial hand washing”, that obsessive compulsive disorder in which an individual persistently forgets he has washed his hands and keeps going back to the wash hand basin would be considered abiding by the rules!

What is it about our species that makes us want to celebrate? And it does not matter whether it’s the odd or just plain semantics. April 1st is called fool’s day and we all just enjoy being told about a good joke pulled on someone that day of the month. However, do adults have to be reminded again that they should wash their hands after and in fact before any activity of significance? My take leans towards what is effective. Stickers reminding me to wash my hands are funny. May be it’s about adding fun to common sense. If the fun does not undermine the seriousness of the subject matter, then we may conjure a smile while we wash our hands.

TGIF

Thank God it’s Friday! I wonder who “invented” the phrase but it must have been construed from feelings similar to mine today. Or better still, the direction on how I like my Fridays when I am neither working on the day nor any other day of the weekend.


Today is one of such days. A pair of jeans was an appropriate part of what I wore to work. For unknown but well- appreciated reasons, the work place had one of the quieter days. As I gnawed on the home-made pop-corn this evening, the enthusiasm of the day even led me into divulging an intended surprise to my significant other: I had just found and saved on the navigator a nearby resort with spa services and I intend for us to make the trip (on a Friday) soon.

It turns out there is no rigorous demand on me for this particular weekend. Just yesterday, my (masters) research tutor finally gave me thumbs-up on the effort on my project (one with an interpretive-hermeneutic study design involving framework analysis!). So I am spending the weekend on whatever comes to my mind; including a little slumber. I think it is this emancipation- mental or any other wise (constituting routine) that makes a Friday feel good. I like Fridays like these. Self indulgence is an essential part of healthy human behaviour and we can all do with the un-winding that sometimes come along with it. Already tonight, I have had a good laugh watching some comedies and when I am done with this post, I would be capping it with some more mentally-teasing political drama. There is still Saturday and Sunday to come! TGIF