And you can dance. For inspiration...

Hello - and thanks for checking in.
So this morning’s 5am jaunt around the devil’s car park (I have a very special relationship with the M25) was hardly enhanced by the morose twittering emanating from my radio.
Wednesday blahblahblah it’s depressing blahblahblah Wednesday morning even worse blahblahblah roll on the weekend blahblahblah… My how the half empty glass is laced with the poisoned tears of racists and paedophiles…
Wednesday also happens to be the midpoint of the week and therefore far closer to the next weekend than yesterday, the day before and for that matter - the previous weekend. I say ‘tomato’ - they say ‘suicidal‘…
And what’s not to love about today? Whilst harbouring certain reservations about the new Leader of the Free World given that he lifted the tag line for his election campaign from children’s favourite Bob the Builder, didn’t the world awake today refreshed by dawning optimism?
Not only is the rise of Obama the poke in the eye of bigoted oppression that many of us feared we’d never see in our lifetime, but we suddenly find ourselves confronted with a true leader who is lucid, urbane, articulate; a politician who speaks from the heart with both feet far from the vicinity of his mouth. Which planet did I wake up on exactly?…
And we watch and we listen and we nod and we audibly hear the galvanising of a people. ‘Stuff is broke,’ we’re told, ‘this is true. But can we fix it?’ As one we cry - ‘Yes! We! Can!’ And it’s not purely blind euphoria, it actually feels tangible. Crikey, can we order up some more of you please?…
But let’s give the guy some room. It is after all his first day on the job and I recall myself in such a position where I almost poisoned every single one of my co-workers through the simple act of making coffee. New jobs can be tough.
Though thank you, President Obama, for exuding the kind of spirit I would love to bottle and franchise. You are most welcome here, sir. I can only beg to whatever cosmic entity sneezed out this wonderful, chaotic romper room of a universe, that the big O doesn’t get lost in the machine and become jaded & distant like so many before him.
Because I see too many people who are all for the power of One - so long as they’re not the One expected to do the legwork.
Take the vox pop spewing forth from my radio this morning as I tussled with bleary eyes and inconsiderate motorists in the dance of the tentatively employed. Lamenting his lot in life, the wireless man on or indeed in the street, lamely attempted to wrestle down the reasons for his three year hiatus from metier.
Now I don’t know the guy, so far be it from me to cast aspersions, however on the face of it - it didn’t sound like he’d been previously ensconced in a trade so specialist as to be permanently and indeed forever more redundant. This man I’m sure, had not formerly fashioned mittens for unicorns woven from the sighs of angels. If I were to cast aspersions (which you understand I am not) I’d hazard a guess that this man would struggle to spell JOB even if he were being given a lap dance by Carol Vorderman who’d had the word tattooed across her chest.
What I’m saying is, maybe they are other factors at play here, other than ’life doing unto me’. Because - and I forget who first said it, probably either Buddha or Bono - when you point the finger of blame, there’s always three more fingers pointing back at you.
So okay, maybe I’m harsh and blinkered and this will all come back to bite me. I am after all, very aware that my own role in the current climate is tenuous at best. And to have ’life do unto to me’ would indeed be a speed bump I could do without. However, the reason I bust my hump working long hours and travelling great distances for a job that would merely hover around the fringes of my ideal, isn’t through any deficiency in my leader elect, the nearsightedness of the financial sector or any number of pretexts hanging from the fickle finger of blame. For the part I played in two failed marriages and an affinity - my being a good little consumer - to amassing shiny things, my present situation is rather more me doing unto life, rather than vice versa. I accept that wholeheartedly, learn from the experience and move on. Geographically I may be Poles apart from being a role model, but I can honestly say I love my life. And for that, I've only got myself to blame.
This morning’s Mr Misery was wheeled out as a tarnished trophy in light of the latest unemployment highs (or rather lows). Two million soon to be out of work in the UK - the highest ever! Now I’ve not looked into this and maybe I should, but 99.97% of all statistics are subjective (and 86.73% of all statistics are made up on the spot). Yes this may be the highest number ever and not by any stretch is it a good number, but has anyone made a comparative assessment against the number of people currently living in the UK? I’d wager that’s at an all time high too. And this isn’t some veiled dig at immigration law. It’s not. I’d just like someone to be honest when spouting math at me.
The poisoned glass half empty brigade love to have us brow beaten with worst case ever scenario. Profits at an all time low! But you still made a profit? Uh, yeah. So what you’re saying is that people are being less gluttonous than is the norm? Uh, yeah. Oh. Sorry, I thought the mantra ‘greed is good’ died with the 80’s? I’m not sure I entirely follow your pronouncement of doom…
The back in the golden days brigade will conveniently skirt around rationing and short life expectancy, virulent human rights infringements and religious genocide. For we privileged in the so-called developed world can look forward to twice the lifetime of our recent ancestors. Think of all the extra whinge benefits for one… Breakthroughs in science and medicine, technology and lets face it - with the crumbling of apartheid, the Berlin wall and other such iconic moments in history - human responsibility, all thrust us forward with a momentum not witnessed since the big string bang thingummy (and if you did witness that, please can you provide a written statement).
Now a chum recently likened my ‘peachy’ worldview to the spirit of a new mobile telecommunications provider’s media ad, where a flash-mob dance-off occurs in perfectly choreographed spontaneity at a major railways thoroughfare. And whilst I balk slightly at such an unbridled display of fun being lashed to such corporate (alleged) cancer inducing cynicism, it is a very very cool sight to behold. Because at the funfair in my head - that’s what happens to the world when ever I pull on headphones in public.
Which leads me to this proposition for you.
As antidote to those who try and beat us down with ballistic statistics and portents of doom, how about compiling your ultimate ‘sunny day’ play list? I’m a firm believer in the power of music and that it can alter your mood in an instant. So why not - whether it be by mp3, old school mix tape or via the joyful eccentricities of Ally McBeal’s John Cage - in your head, string together some solid tunes to pick you up when all around is down.
Then dance your ass off, whether for real or in the playground of your mind. Now how does that feel?
And unto the nay sayers, I say - hey! Why so glum? Why so serious?… As the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince once sang; I get delirious!
Stay positive.