|
I'm giving things up, not least video tapes. Actually, I'm not giving them up because I don't possess them!
However, I ask myself, what other aspects of life's rich tapestry am I letting pass me by? I've never admitted to giving up pipe smoking, but the 'weed' hasn't touched my lips for nigh on fifteen years. I seldom eat red meat, and confectionery I haven't tasted for at least a week!
I don't think there's much left for me to give up now. But I wouldn't like you to imagine I'm becoming ascetic in my old age. I still enjoy some pleasures in life, or what's left of them, such as listening to music, taking the odd holiday, writing, and occasionally putting a jigsaw puzzle together. And how satisfying it is to read a good book without that 'box' blaring away in the corner!
It's a particularly British trait to give things up, like, for instance, caffeine and cholesterol. We do so because we believe abstinence is a virtue. Blame the Puritans, I say!
Why don't I eat chocolate? I love chocolate! I could live on chocolate! I'm sure that, apart from adding to my waistline, it wouldn't do me any harm. So why won't I even nibble an after-dinner mint? Because not eating chocolate gives me some sort of inner glow.
It's the same with puddings, and it's not just me, it's probably the same with you, too. You drool over a luscious cream tart, and then refuse it. That's just after you've guzzled a mountain of chips with a greasy hamburger! So you're not thinking about your weight. You're thinking, like me, that puddings, and the like, are put on this planet to be left uneaten.
Some things, like computer-ware, digital watches and mobile phones, I've given up, for the simple reason that I've never taken them up in the first place. But I imagine that a generation from now there'll be people boasting to their friends and relatives that they've given up their laptops as well.
In conclusion: at a church harvest festival, piles of tinned food were collected for old-age pensioners. It had been collected from people in the neighbourhood - most of it from old-age pensioners!
Talk about giving things up!
| |
|
