Chaos

We have managed to do some slight furniture shifting this morning.  The blanket box is no longer serving as Mike’s bedside table and is now downstairs.  This means that I can now get at covers, blankets, tablecloths and the like without having to first remove radios, lights, biscuit boxes, breathing machines, inhalers, pills, clocks and all the other things necessary for a gentleman’s overnight comfort.  I’m not that much better but most of my bedside stuff stays on the floor. It currently consists of a pile of books, a kindle, a notebook, a pen and a box of paper handkerchiefs.  Mike scorns the paper kind and keeps cotton handkerchiefs under his pillow.   In a bedside cabinet I also have some useful items - manicure scissors, a thing for doing head massage and a kaleidoscope.  I’m very fond of the kaleidoscope – it’s so cheering, and the head massage thingy is very soothing.

I needed cheering and soothing this morning.  I fell asleep thinking about Edward Snowden, the young American who has just told the world that the USA has been grabbing everyone’s on-line correspondence, tweets, twitters and twitches.  They haven’t denied it but started by saying that, of course, they haven’t read anything produced by Americans.   This is now stretched to embrace people living in the UK.  I don’t believe them and I’m not reassured by such xenophobia.  What they are doing is illegal.  Presumably, any illegal act can be legitimised if someone who is ruling at the time says it’s alright.   Naively I used to think that the rulers of the west had their citizens’ best interests at heart.  I don’t now.   In fact it's possible that every country in the world is currently being ruled by criminals - and where does that leave the citizens?  The majority of us don’t want to riot, rob banks, blow things up or spy on each other.  Most of us just want a peaceful life, enough to eat and pay bills and to walk the dog.   Meanwhile, the rulers of the USA are charging Edward Snowden, and not themselves, with espionage.        

So last night I dreamt I was living in chaos.  Everything around me was strewn into unworkable heaps – I couldn’t find anything – I had no bed – no clean clothes – no coat – no bag – no money.  Bedclothes were laid in piles in corners and scattered across chairs, along with items of dirty clothing and heaps of goodness knows what.   And I was due at work.  I knew I was going to be late but I couldn’t think what to say.  “I’m sorry I can’t come in yet, I’m in chaos,” doesn’t work.  So I stood in the middle of this upheaval thinking “What shall I say? What shall I say?” And I couldn’t even find the phone to say it. 

I was so relieved when I woke up and remembered I was a retired woman and don’t have to go to work anymore.  That is, as long as the UK Pension authorities can still pay me, which may not be forever.    We are all going to look fine, hobbling out in our extreme dotage to earn our keep.    People complain enough these days about banks, building societies and other large organisations muddling things up.  Wait until the 80 and 90 years olds are forced to return to work!