Ramble On

So - this being alone thing is rather strange. I have too much time to think, to ponder on the world. But more of that later…

Delighted to awake without pain this morning. It’s so nice that a good long run doesn’t leave the limbs shredded anymore. I was asleep before midnight last night. V unlike me, even after a run. It seems that tedium causes sleep.

Back here by 11am this morning. I’d been up; fed the cat, fed the birds (wild, outdoor birds, the most luscious looking pheasant you ever did see), gone into “town” and had my lovely Costa coffee, put cheque into the bank, shopped at M&S Food (again!!!); and returned before I am usually caffeine-d when at home.

Ah well, the email is checked; the essentials of the internet have been digested. Today those essentials were pretty much only the BBC news images of Oscar dresses (never one to avoid the shallow) ; and check the Scotland news, just in case they shut the border whilst I’ve been gone. ;-)

In town (a good 10 miles away) I glimpsed a magazine which really freaked me out: YOUR DREAM WEDDING CAKE - wtf I mean, how, in what world, is this a title that can publish monthly?? I understand there are a lot of wedding mags out there, and some that specialise in particular aspects. It’s all such hokum, such unmitigated crap designed for people with no ideas of their own. It’s such a huge industry of just trying to sell stuff.

It’s this “selling of stuff” that leads me into the depth of my thoughts. I was wondering if the incredibly materialistic and consumptive (if that could please be a word, and not in the TB sense) society we both find ourselves surrounded by, and participate in; is really a new form of shackles for women-kind. This is NOT to imply that men do not also feel the urge to “buy” - but just that they are not targeted as unremittingly.

Everywhere we go adverts and shops are desperate to get us to consume. Is the desire to fulfil a certain life and style (exclusively and in combination) becomes such an all encompassing thought that more important issues are driven out. Women’s magazines are full of fluff - all sorts of fluff - and we are distracted from politics; from social reform; from issues of sexuality and violence. We are cocooned from/against society in its more raw forms. I am not suggesting that all women fall for this, I am not suggesting that all women are uninterested in politics and social reform; I am merely suggesting that the media interest in selling “stuff” and in promoting consumption (whether it be shiny new designer brands, or tiny boutique-y eco-green canvas bags) provides a comfortable duvet under which we can hide. It’s the comfy bed that no one wants to be dragged from of a morning.

More mad ramblings to follow. I’m off to put myself back into the straight-jacket.