And never a question asked
I’m on board a ship heading for South America – a two hulled Russian ice-breaker, full of old, and mainly fat, British people with minds to think but most with a propensity for trivia. Life on board is a round of games, fun, grumbles, indulgence and pointlessness.
They read, for the most part, trite rubbish. Around them is a huge ocean where life and death are played out before our eyes. It is not reflected in the literature.
We crossed the equator to the performance of a juvenile enactment of penance to King Neptune. The gods of the past, feared and respected, were now fair fodder for farce just as the gods of today will become.
It is 2016 and everywhere the global corporation is sucking the life out of the planet as society is guided away from the natural into the synthetic. All products have inbuilt obsolescence and an endless stream of new models. We have to replace the old. It’s a game of catch-up.
We are consuming the planet for a mad game. We are creating and nurturing desires for profit – for nothing more than profit.
.
And never a question asked
Safety, comfort and ease,
Is the mantra of the modern world.
Superficial, artificial and pointless,
Is the new way of things.
If anything dares to live……
If anyone cares to be different……….
And never a question.
Shallow pleasures
With laughter and jollity,
But no spirit or substance.
Light to the mind –
Easy to the taste –
Lest it disturbs thoughts.
And never a question.
No depth or meaning
To ripple the mind.
Purchasing and consuming
Are the only purpose.
Numerals on a loyalty card –
And never a question.
Opher 16.1.2016
Maybe all those old fat British people had saved hard for that trip and just wanted to relax and see places they had never seen before or would see again.
There were a number that did just that. I was impressed by the energy and enthusiasm of some of them. They were old but keen for adventure
I was repulsed by some of the greediness and stupidity in others. This was a poem that came out of that. Some never left the ship, grumbled even though the staff were brilliant, food great and destinations superb, and piled their plates up with huge amounts. There’s no excuse for extreme gluttony or rudeness.
That is human beings, when its “free” so to speak, they just grab what they can.
Not all of them. Indeed it was a minority. It is just that the rude, stupid and greedy tend to stick out more than the rest. I think I was probably having a bad day!
Just had a lovely lunch with the oldies in Portugal! There are lots of different types but those who have money can be quite indifferent to the real world. All part of your journey though!
Yes. Sometimes you want to wake people up.
How did you find you got on with the folks on board? Make any new friends?
Yes we did. Made a number of friends. We ended up at a table with another couple to discover he went to the same school as me and had been in the year above. So we lived in the same town and knew the same people. Gave us a lot to talk about.
Well imagine that! On our first cruise we sat with a couple from Perth, Australia. They lived right close to my best friend in all the world. It true is a small world, isn’t it…
remarkable isn’t it? We could have been on that boat and never known but happened to end up on the same table.
😀
Serendipity rules.