August

A full house apart from one with four winners with two votes so just one was selected by John which happened to be mine. So here it is.

Back over

If you could live your life back over would you want to? If on dying you were given the opportunity to relive your life as it was or accept the unknowing nothingness of complete oblivion what would you choose. I would take the oblivion. My decision might be different if I had control to change things by using the wisdom that does come with age. We older people are not torn by jealousy or desires We know that whatever we lust after loses it lustre after attaining it.

If it was possible to dip in and out of our life stream to bring peace to an event where there was anger or fear that perhaps might change my mind.

Even then would that be enough to make you want to live it again I doubt as it would be like seeing Shawshank Redemption over and over again. It is the unrolling unknown that brings the life into our existence. And the magical moments that live in our memory.

I mentioned to my neighbour Ted who was a member of the U3A the subject I would be writing about in this month's creative writing. I asked him what would he do to change his life and after reflecting for a moment he said he would change things so that he would be living in Scotland where he was born.

I asked why were the people better or was Edinburgh so nice a city to be attractive enough to want to go back? I told him I would not be offended if he said it was the people.

He said he had a lot of friends there but I pointed out not too unkindly I hope, that they were all dead. He said it is such a beautiful city. He recalled a time during the war in which he was involved, manning a Landing craft support ship. It was just after D Day he returned to Scotland and getting out of the train he walked up the main road from the station with all the historic buildings bathed in sunlight with few people about and the feeling he had was that the whole scene was bathed in a ethereal light it transformed his features at the remembrance.

I did wonder if it was the sunlight being such a rare sight in Scotland. But I didn't say that to him either.

There is a philosophy that suggests we ought to accept what is happening including our thoughts each moment. If adopted it will mean life is no longer a struggle to fight to change what is.

In today's paper the young woman dancer who lost her leg in the roller coaster accident says she would not change what happened to her as it made her a better person.

In my case if I was able to go back in time to reassure my parents when the bombs landed all around us in Gosport that we would all survive the war and there was no need to evacuate to the Isle of Wight it would have changed everything for the better. The IOW experience was good but coming back to the mainland was too much of a sacrifice.

But I know if my mother had the same question put to her when she passed through the gate and had a chat with Gabriel I would not have come into the world in the first place.

Next month    "Be Naughty"