h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's windy tonight. It's moaning like a ghost in the stove pipe, whining round the edges of the windows and sending leaves scratching at the bottom of the door. It won't do it any good, it's the old cottage front door, permanently locked with a desk placed in front of it. The wind is driving rain spattering against the kitchen window. It won't get in that way either, that window is firmly sealed. The ceiling is making the odd creak, the clock's ticking loudly, the stove is still hot though the last log is a just a heap of embers and the kettle has just boiled. Midnight's coming up fast. Time for a hot drink and up the stair to zzzzz's.

"... it was a darrrrrk and storrrrmy night....."

It was a storym night, I was awakened at 3.30am by the wind and driving rain battering my patio doors, right next to my bed. My bedroom has 3 exposed walls so I hear the wind whistling round the bungalow. Soon my son is leaving home, so I'm going to gut his bedroom, decorate, recarpet and move in. It actually has a radiator so I'm looking forward to going to bed in a warm room rather than a fridge, which is what I've been doing for the last 9 years.

Five minutes to midnight ...

For the euro? For Greece? Spain, Portugal? For the rhino? For our over-heating planet as we know it?

When I read my Great Aunt's journals it was noticeable how little she mentioned, or didn't mention at all, the world-changing events she lived through. It was disappointing. These journals of mine don't mention these things either. So far unmentioned this month we've had the first black President of the USA re-elected, to the great relief of many outside America. I think we've just got through another debt crisis crisis, ie we've sucessfully kicked Robert Peston's (one of the very, very few journalists left that can be respected) tin can down the road a bit. We've had a flare up that could have set Israel and Palestine ablaze, Syria is smouldering, Spanish pharmacy shelves are empty, Greek pensioners are starving, the ice-cap is melting, the UK is sodden and repeatedly flooding. Much worse happens in the Third World but that is not specific to this age. There are expert views on all this and I cannot add to them - that's why they've not been mentioned. Maybe that's why Aunt C didn't talk about them either. What I would have liked to read was her own experience of them.

So what's my experience of what's going on around us now? Fundamentally it's an underlying constant of not frustration but inabilty. Inability to do anything because I have no power as an individual and have no faith in the politicians we act through via the ballot box.

If I was reading Aunt C's words, I'd want more something more concrete than that, it's not interesting. So direct experience: We've not had a pay increase at work for two years and won't next year, in real terms that's a reduction. Food's noticeably more expensive, and fuel. But that's not making a material difference at our end of our worklife. We lived through a golden age when University was free, jobs were easier come by and secure for a long time, pensions were secure, we're insulated. A material effect is that my pesion age is retreating. That hurts. Charity donations are falling, the one I work for is keeping up but it takes more work. It's insulated a bit by the type of charity it is, others are faring worse and it will get worse. Public sector job cuts are yet to bite - that will affect charity support.Last week I joined in the mass decision of the British public to ignore the election of Police Commissioners or whatever they were, (that's direct non-experience reallly).

The destruction of our extraordinarily beautiful, complex, intricately balanced planet hurts much more than the retreating pension. There are constant reminders of it, but the small things I can do about it are way outweighed by the inaction (at best) of those with real power. So I do the little I can to preserve it - recycle what the Council says to, heat water with solar panels, use as little heating oil as possible. Etc. That really is very, very little. Then I concentrate on appreciating what we have and take comfort in the planet's resilience. It will survive, so will life, just not, as Spock said, as we know it. And almost certainly not with Homosapiens as part of it. One of Life's balancing acts is that over-reaching species in obliterating all around them do end up obliterating themselves.

Homospiens' only hope is some drastic cut in its population. A pandemic perhaps. What did happen to Bird Flu?

This is a poor journal, but it's all there is and it is five minutes to midnight again.

I think it's a brilliant journal, the best one anyone ever wrote. A round of applause seems too trivial to laud it.

I am in awe. Douglas Adams himself couldn't have done better.

Sorry that this sounds a bit trite - I don't do trite. I mean it.

You should talk to Willem, you share the same thoughts.

Websailor

TC and thank you. I can't agree but I'm glad it meant something and I appreciate you're saying so.

Websailor, we do, though Willem's range and depth is much, much greater than mine. We also share an upbringing in Africa - which I think is not unrelated.

Oh, I didn't know that, how interesting. It might well be the reason for the similarities, but you are right Willem is much deeper than most of us I think.

Websailor