Meaning of life type stuff

It was my birthday of a couple of weeks ago. The start of a personal new year. Time to take stock? Nah not this time. The actual day was a workday so took leave and just bummed about. It was an okay sort of day I did get some interesting presents (an olive tree! Brilliant). But there was none of the usual mulling over. There is too much going on within the family for me to waste time mulling over my worries.

My eldest son and his wife are back on track with a few issues simmering in the background. Nothing too serious but enough to keep me thinking. I haven’t seen a lot of them recently but I am looking forward to going on holiday with them in August.

My second son is having a really bad time. His employers are trying to finish him but that’s against the law so they are reducing his pay (£124 last month) to force him into seeking state benefits and retirement. He is very stressed out and its affected his condition to the point where he is very nearly unable to walk. He’s being fitted for a wheel chair this week.

My third son is fine. No change. Happy I hope.

My daughter is moving back from Oxford minus her husband – they’re not splitting up – she can’t face the loneliness of being a forces wife.

So much to think about. My life may be half over but I find that although I worry about my family I haven’t lost my appetite for life. I enjoy as many of the moments as I can (some moments aren’t enjoyable no matter how hard you try). I still get excited about events and people (particularly my grandchildren – its worth staying alive just see your grandchildren. It’s a lot being an irresponsible parent just taking pure joy form being in their company and letting them have their way!). I’m still talking to anyone who will listen about the outdoor Macbeth I saw last week. That’s the secret to being happy. Taking delight in the small things in life. It pays not to be negative about anything (sometimes cynicism is unavoidable but give everything a chance).
I watched Monty Python’s Meaning of Life last night. Haven’t seen it for years. Now I think that if your going to enjoy Monty Python then you had to be born in the fifties or sixties and I know some people would rather have a tent peg screwed into their ears than watch Monty Python BUT I enjoyed it. Apart from the anarchy there is a lot of piss taken out the standard philosophies and a truly excellent song by Eric Idle that actually explains our situation perfectly. It’s better with music and Eric Idle’s voice but the lyrics are as follows:

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

We’re only here to be happy! I must try harder!