Simple Life

Hitting the ground with my little 'pixie' feet whirring away here. Arrived Wednesday evening and first thing on Thursday morning I was hammering on my solicitor's door demanding to know how my house purchase in England was going. 'Just fine' it seemed ... hmm, but a pity he'd not quite 'clicked' to the idea that, as completion of the sale had to be on the 14th and the weekend was looming, then all the paperwork and money movements would need to be done by tonight. Anyway, it looks like it might all happen, just about. let's hope that I get the keys to my new house on Monday as planned.

And then up to Lancaster for a meeting with the vicar there to arrange for the choir to use the priory church for a couple of hours practice next year, just before our 'main event' at Cartmel Priory on 10 July. Traffic is bad in Lancaster at the best of times - worse than the Tokyo 'rush hour' to be honest - but yesterday it was so awful because of roadworks that I actually abandoned my car a couple of kilometres from the town centre and walked to my appointment, the only way that I could get there on time. Still, worth the effort, another key job ticked off the list.

Coming back home in the car there was an interesting debate in progress on Radio 4 about the 'Me Society' in Britain, and I was quite impressed with the standard of discussion. One of the contributors claimed - don't know where the statistic was from - that 23% of UK residents had been treated for some form of mental disorder at some stage during the last twelve months. I guess that includes everything from the most severe bipolar cases to mild depression and drug abuse, but it was still a startling figure. The United States was higher at 26% but for mainland Europe the figure averaged around 11%. It seems that mental and social disintegration is very much a child of the Anglo-American brand of capitalism.

An interesting point was made concerning the extent that the 'Me' Society is actually a product of marketing. People seldom use 'me' time just to relax or spend time with others, they use it to consume. Consume holidays, time at the gym, luxury food and drinks, therapies, entertainment. Even these areas have now been colonised by a consumer society, yet another of capitalism's "spatial fixes". We are told that it is 'our right' to expect time to ourselves - in which to consume yet more goods and services.

It was good to hear people discussing for a change how to 'back off' this kind of stuff. Serious poverty brings few pleasures, but some of the happiest people I know are the ones without much cash and who just accept and deal with what comes up next.