This week I’ve spent a lot of time singing Rip It Up by Orange Juice, a catchy little number you may remember from the 80s, which includes the following:
You know me I’m acting dumb dumb
You know the scene is very humdrum
And my favourite song’s entitled Bor-ore-dom
The “favourite song” Edwin Collins is referring to is a punk classic by The Buzzcocks, released on the Spiral Scratch EP in January 1977, it’s called Boredom and it features those first two lines.
So I think boredom is the reason I’ve been singing Rip It Up this week – not because I’ve been bored (I don’t think I’ve been bored since I was about 14 and found something to do on Sundays) but because my dad has been in hospital and I imagine he’s bored out of his mind. Fortunately, like my cats, he spends most of his waking hours asleep, which to some people raises the question “What’s the point?” – but then how stimulating is your life? Is it not mostly a series of mundane chores, punctuated by the odd planned highlight? Dinner. The pub. A show. A trip. At least he doesn’t have to get the washing machine fixed or nag SpeedyHire to come and pick their wacker plate up.
If you added together all the hours of highlights and all the hours of lowlights in your average day (not including sleep), the low would outweigh the high by at least five to one. Such is life. Like all animals, we spend most of our time doing what we need to do to survive. And paradoxically, the more advanced and ‘efficient’ we get, the more time we lose to the mundane chores.
You may be familiar with the expression ‘Eat a frog for breakfast’. It’s one of those mantras business advisers like to trot out. It means do the things you least want to do first each day. I’ve been contemplating this and, while there is a certain stoical logic to it, I’m not sure that stoical logic is a sound recipe for a happy life. If we prioritised all the things we least wanted to do every day, we’d have no time for the things we do want to do. How many people reach their deathbed thinking, “I wish I’d eaten more frogs”?
Outside France, I mean.
So what if we stopped eating frogs altogether? Or at least pushed them to the side of the plate until we’d gorged ourselves on the good stuff? Wouldn’t we then feel more upbeat and energised for the frog eating? And we’d make sure that we missed out on less of the tasty morsels that life throws our way.
I say this but I don’t truly believe it. I struggle with putting things off because I know they don’t go away. For example, I’ve been putting off writing Word of the Week since early August and look! It hasn’t gone away.
But then they don’t go away when you do them either. Replying to emails only encourages more emails. Returning calls only prompts more calls. Paying bills only invites more bills. Sweeping up dirt only creates a canvas for more dirt. And now that I’ve written this, I’ll only feel like I ought to write another one, possibly even next week.
So anyway, the hospital just rang to say he’s ready to come home. That drive will be a highlight for him, before he returns to his chair and Countdown and then the thrill of dinner. And that’s ok, because none of us can be stimulated 24/7 and as long as there are highlights, life is worth living.
So rip it up and rip it up
Rip it up and rip it up
Rip it up and start again
