So the dream is over. Andy Murray will not be Wimbledon champion 2009.
The tidal wave of goodwill and togetherness that washed over the UK will no doubt subside and we'll go back to a yawning indifference as the Lions tour trundles to an end, the England Cricket team bat their way through the sporting calendar during the Ashes and the football season monotonously kicks off once again. Meanwhile, the gap between us all gets that little bit wider.
It was fun though, wasn't it? Knowing that whoever you might have sat next to on the bus or bumped into in a shop or worked alongside in an office, you always had a few minutes of Andy Murray chat to fall back on to feed a fuzzy bond that tends to be absent between us.
I couldn't help but worry therefore that the awful news of an old lady's body lying undiscovered for five years serves as a dark clarion call for us all. Neighbourliness and community spirit stands on the brink while we immerse ourselves in our daily lives at the expense of taking interest in those around us.
The tidal wave of goodwill and togetherness that washed over the UK will no doubt subside and we'll go back to a yawning indifference as the Lions tour trundles to an end, the England Cricket team bat their way through the sporting calendar during the Ashes and the football season monotonously kicks off once again. Meanwhile, the gap between us all gets that little bit wider.
It was fun though, wasn't it? Knowing that whoever you might have sat next to on the bus or bumped into in a shop or worked alongside in an office, you always had a few minutes of Andy Murray chat to fall back on to feed a fuzzy bond that tends to be absent between us.
I couldn't help but worry therefore that the awful news of an old lady's body lying undiscovered for five years serves as a dark clarion call for us all. Neighbourliness and community spirit stands on the brink while we immerse ourselves in our daily lives at the expense of taking interest in those around us.
They say we all have two deaths. Our actual death and a second when noone left on the planet remembers us any more. How terrible therefore that for this old lady it seems the second death came before the first. Above most other issues that we face as a nation which seem important, perhaps building cultural safeguards to minimise the risk of this happening again is paramount?
It may seem an extreme comparison but I just can't shake the thought that the explosion of optimism and good-feeling surrounding Andy Murray's sunkissed Wimbledon adventure gave us a tantalising glimpse of how we wish to interact with others and yet, for most of us, that sad story of Isabella Purves could all too easily have happened on our very own street.
It may seem an extreme comparison but I just can't shake the thought that the explosion of optimism and good-feeling surrounding Andy Murray's sunkissed Wimbledon adventure gave us a tantalising glimpse of how we wish to interact with others and yet, for most of us, that sad story of Isabella Purves could all too easily have happened on our very own street.
1 comments:
Yes, I agree. You've touched something there. And maybe it's necessary for someone to remind us of this before we all forget it completely. Perhaps we'd all be a little happier in life if we concerned ourselves a little more with our neighbours, specially the old and potentially lonely ones.
I just can't get the image of that poor woman out of my head now. Imagine being so alone in life that no one noticed you were dead for 5 years.
But surely someone in the bank noticed that her pension cheques were going in but no money was coming out. Did no one at the council notice that she hadn't paid her Council Tax; and what about her electricity bills?
Something is very wrong here.
Post a Comment