Something’s in the air …
November in Pattaya’s myriad mall and outlet store and the message is loud and clear– Christmas is coming!
Certainly rather unexpected in Buddhist Thailand. Back in the village Isaan town, home up until just recently, about the only indication of the celebration remained in the aisles of the regional Tesco Lotus (now post-divorce went back to her first name Lotus) where a variety of kitsch ‘Christmassy’ tinsel and tat would be on screen. Often on the shop’s Tannoy there would be juvenile Thai voices– “ We wiss you a melly chlisma’ “! In Pattaya I when identified a Christmas tree with an angel atop in a Go-Go bar! Blimey, discuss the spiritual and the profane!
Anyhow the result of the message was to release the scribbler on a frenzied look for a store with a good stock of Christmas cards, an essential active ingredient in the fulfilment of the joyful season’s great cheer. They flood postal systems throughout the western world every December providing mirth and merrymaking, and sometimes a light touch of cynicism.
And there was a time years ago when the Scribbler would for a number of weeks work as a necessary link in the Christmas postal chain. Being a short-term Christmas ‘postie’ was not just a good little earner for having a hard time trainees however supplied a healthy taste of the real life after months of the unreality of college life.
The round in my Yorkshire home town was a journey through Britain’s then still extremely obvious class distinctions, the entire variety of social, financial and cultural levels that at the time existed in northern commercial towns. Beginning as dawn broke in snow covered streets of mean ‘back to back’ terraced homes where a vehicle would, in those days be an unusual sight, the round ended in the ‘opportunities’ of an upscale middle class suburban area where Humbers, Hillmans and the periodic Jaguar beautified the prolonged driveways– a world apart. It remained in this environment where you were more than likely to experience the postie’s top opponent– the postie disliking pet dog.
At That Time our Yorkshire winter seasons were much harsher than in the environment modifications present. I would be covered in several layers of wool, in a manner suitable as this West Riding mill town lay in the heart of the then still prospering wool fabric market, and a set of hard boots!
Now 60 years on and half a world away here in Pattaya’s hot and bright days it’s odd how such memories can be remembered so clearly.
Do not do something, simply sit there …
In a world that glorifies mad activity and limitless performance, the art of idleness is a piece of peace of mind undoubtedly deserving a much larger following.
Proficient followers of the art must not be viewed as otiose layabouts however as having actually discovered knowledge in stillness and intentionally picked to decrease, disconnect, and savour the charm of merely not doing anything.
When I transferred to Pattaya after several years idleness in remote rural Isaan a place remarkably fit to doing absolutely nothing, enjoying rice grow you hear the whispers of one’s ideas, I hesitated the city lights may jolt me out of my thoroughly cultivated idleness. Fortunately it hasn’t, a minimum of up until now!
Excellent minds from Aristotle to Leonardo da Vinci, welcomed idleness. They understood that imagination happens when the mind is complimentary to roam. After all Socrates appears to have actually done bit, apart from arguing with individuals in the market, however that didn’t stop him ending up being the world’s most popular theorist. In a society that values busyness for its own sake, let’s not forget the knowledge of idleness.
In minutes of not doing anything you might discover a calm clearness imagination. It’s the elixir for stressed out minds and tired bodies!
Merry Christmas to all.
