In the midnight you awake with a chest ache, with dark dreams, worry and fear, a black dog feeds…
Alas, Decembral distractions: Hazel Prior’s Antarctic Penguins, The Bagnold’s suburbia, Mandalorian sci-corn, Home Alone capers, Billy Elliot’s passion, Spiderman’s kingdom’s, various BBC Sounds’ dreamscapes, Grayson Perry’s acute observations, Simon Cross’s Theotokos Nativity, Scott Mariani’s excessive adventures… From Snowpiercing sci-fi, to grounding Octopus Teachers…
For us this year there’s been no December theatre trip. But, this holyday season I’ve again spent time, perhaps vicariously, with a few novels, films, songs, radio shows, musicals, TV dramas… It’s amazing where you can travel with a clever combination of words, a hearty chorus, some great characters and some dramatic lighting and effect. To quote a superhero “…it’s about what you believe”.
“…it’s about what you believe”
A superhero
If you are lucky to have ‘time-off’, mid-Christmas, there is a hiatus, a Pinteresque pause… …(a rejection of perfection in favour of realism?) This ‘space’ between the jingle of Christmas and the expectations of a new year…
It’s a bit like the interval in a theatre show. You remember the theatre interval? The lights go up, and the buzz is suspended. The energy of the dramatic stories that have just enchanted you is… exhaled. The house lights reveal you in a row of burgundy velour seats. The people around you stir, flip their seats and jostle to the ice-creams, or the bar, real people, real faces, sharing real place(s). There is a tangible hopeful expectation of the next act…
This ‘space’ between the jingle of Christmas and the expectations of a new year… can be a tense time… Outside the window the light is bright, but low… shadows glint… dusk silhouettes stand silent… But, Hark, the…
In this pause between excitement and expectation we might find a realism…
Do the stars still burn? Yes.
Are there still glad sounds? Yes.
Wasn’t it great to chat with a friend outside of Tesco’s? Yes.
Take an impromptu walk round the block with like-minded friends…
In essence, is humanity still a wonderful thing… ?
To quote Joe Gardner in Soul “just regular old living” … there is still lots to celebrate.
“…just regular old living”
Joe Gardner, Soul
So above the ache of disease, outside of the dark dreams, beyond the worry of responsibility, away from the fear of blame, afore Horace’s dusky dog…
Perhaps reality is more about just regular old believing.
Perhaps it’s more about just regular old believing.
julesprichards
Jules P Richards 