2020 - the time of the god of small things

 

A CHIP IN TIME

I've not posted in here much recently because... there's not a lot going on, is there?  That applies all the more so to Go Live, my other blog where I write wee reviews of gigs, plays and films I've been to.  This year there have been only 11 posts, the last one in mid March.  In 2019 there were nearly 130.  The bulk of those were written during Edinburgh's festival season, from April to August, a stream flowing with music and film and drama and comedy.  

But 2020 is festival-less.  No crowds, no queuing, no being packed into small obscure venues, no timetable to keep to and no piles of tickets to work through.  

I've missed it, but in the bigger picture it barely registers.  There is more to life.  I'm certainly not complaining, for the need for this situation is obvious, and I've settled into a different way of living which is none the less pleasurable for these enforced changes.  I even, as I wrote here a few weeks ago, found plenty to enjoy about lockdown.  But it does require a change of perspective.  Live entertainment provided so many of the real highs of my year.  And a few of the lows - if you take an eclectic approach to festival-going you're always going to find yourself watching films and comedians that are, in the local vernacular, a load o' pish.  But covid-19 has required some recalibration.  The summits and valleys of daily experience exist in a more East Anglian landscape, where the highs are lower and the lows are higher.  You have to look harder for moments to get excited about.

A few days ago, in a moment of clumsiness, I chipped one of our dinner plates.  Of course I was annoyed with myself for doing something so stupid, and for spoiling the set.  A bit of a low point in a day, like most days, where nothing much was going to happen.  And a high point too. A very very low high point maybe, but a high nonetheless.  Because it was something different to talk about, something unexpected, something out of the usual settled pattern, something that provided a couple of minutes of conversation that wasn't about shopping or eating or TV or what bastards the tories are.   I look to the small things to keep me going...