Pair in pool confirmed it really is a wonderful world
Your life can be weary, If you’re on your own, So try and be cheery, And lift up your phone; Your sadness may cease, When you swap some patter, A life’s brand-new lease, Can start with a natter.
It’s a song that’s largely about seeing things, but the lyrics had been changed.
As I swam some slow lengths in our local pool I heard the voice of an older man – a grandad, I believe – and a primary school aged girl – who appeared to be blind – singing together in the hot-tub about the things they could feel, smell, taste and hear.
Some imagination had gone into the new lyrics but the tune was a familiar one.
I slowed my stroke, gulped pool-water and my eyes got wet even though the water hadn’t touched them, as the two happily intertwining voices reached the chorus line: “And I think to myself, what a wonderful world!”
I MENTIONED the idea of Little Free Libraries a couple of weeks ago.
These are public bookshelves where people can borrow and return books on an honour system.
North Ayrshire Council unveiled two of them this week, one in Irvine’s Maritime Museum and the other at the town’s Harbour Arts Centre.
I asked one of the organisers if the bookcases would inevitably be vandalised. “Oh, absolutely,” she replied. “But should we let those low expectations stop us from aiming for something higher? Or do we prepare for those events and also prepare to move beyond them?”
She said more, but in those words was enough philosophy to build a life on, never mind a library.
“AH, for the good old days when no one locked their doors!”
Harry was searching his key-rack, so he could lock up before we took the dogs out.
I just had to ask. He had two doors and a hut – why did he have so many keys?
It turns out half the street (or so it seems) have, at one point or another, for one reason or another, given Harry a set of their house-keys. Just in case! He found what he was looking for, locked the door and we set off in slow pursuit of the dogs.
Ah, for those old days, I thought! They aren’t coming back. But, oh, for more neighbours like Harry – people who others trust with all they have.
With more of those we wouldn’t need locks on our doors!