Friday, August 20 2021
New friends. That’s what I need. People who play music would be a good place to start. How do you find new friends during a pandemic? How do you find new friends when society has become so polarized. I’m talking shit now, of course I know how to make new friends. All you need to do is to put yourself in a room full of people and then communicate. Those the main ingredients. People and communication. Throw in a touch of charisma, sprinkles of inquisitiveness and go delving into their lives, thoughts and viewpoints. It’s probably like fishing, which I don’t do. The silly thing is that I have recently made loads of new friends. There are plenty of great people who have cancer and when you also have cancer you get to rub shoulders. This isn’t always the case. When I was first diagnosed I found myself in the waiting room at Monash Hospital. The room was full of old men, most were my age or older. I tried a little to talk to some of them but I quickly realized that it was a fool’s errand. We had nothing in common, or it appeared that way. The people I met later at Oxymed and Dr Eng’s IV clinic all had one (or more) thing in common and that was inquisitiveness and hope.
Anyway, I’m finished with my treatments for now and I should be ecstatic (which I am) but I’m going to miss my new found social life and my new friends. 2 guaranteed days of communication each week, even during a pandemic and lockdowns.
New thought. I still firmly believe that I am destined to win the lottery. I wake up on several of the weekly mornings when it is drawn, to check my phone like a school boy waiting for the bottle to point at him when in the hormone stirring game “Spin The Bottle”, until now there is always a sense of disbelief that I have not won. I hate to admit this about myself but at times I feel a slight tinge of jealousy and malevolence toward the rightful winner. It’s a bit like the lottery of life. No matter how old I become I still innately believe that I will live forever.
Talking about such things … we watched a movie last night based on the life of English/Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde, a beautifully made movie. What struck me once again is how I am drawn to the Victorian era sense of style and the aesthetic that adorned their homes and overall style. I am talking about the upper ends of society here not the poor bastards who worked non stop until they died at an early age and lived with their whole family in 2 rooms. Cluttered walls, cluttered rooms, full of beautifully made and designed items that often had no intrinsic use, large indoor plants, intricacies that showcased the abilities of the creators, beauty everywhere. For some unknown reason this is the aesthetic that I am drawn to a mixture of art, craftsmanship, orientalist, plants, fitting as much in as is humanly possible, a bit like walking through an exotically overgrown forest.
