Prozac Nation

[Ben]

Are we alive???? Do we really exist???? You sitting reading this...yeah I'm talking to you! How many pills or tabs or routines do you have to go through a day to get you from morning to night??? How stressed are you? When was the last time you layed your head on the pillow to go to sleep and didn't worry about something?

When was the last time you looked forward to receiving your mail? When was the last time you looked forward to going to work (If you're lucky enough to have a job?).

When was the last time you did anything without worrying about something?

Is that what we're supposed to be like??? Running down the Doc's every now and then to get another fix to see us through the next couple of weeks. When was the last time you didn't worry about ANYTHING!!!

You see the way I see it there's a whole world out there screaming in pain and unfilled desire and hopelesness and wondering what the hell they are doing on this planet??? And yet somehow every morning the mask goes on and stays on till we get back home..shut the door and let it slip!

Enough of this crap do you know why??? Because as much as we might be screaming in pain there's a whole planet that's screaming back at us saying come enjoy me!!! Hell it's got flowers if you look. Beautiful flowers, poppies, cornflowers, petunias all little miracles in their own right. It's got trees...willows, oak trees, pines and forests that you can walk through and throw your mind back hundreds of years and feel in tune with the landscape from then.
It's got mountains which if you get off your ass and climb will really make you feel King of the world. It's got rivers and streams and grass and animals and a whole heartful of delights that you don't even have to look for...you just have to open your eyes.

Who the hell are we???? What are we all about? Do we continue in our stupified state until the day we die? Or do we rediscover what's here for us to enjoy?
Discovering means challenging preconceived notions because we have been so sublimanally manipulated that we've forgotten what it is to be human. I'm not asking you to strip naked and run down your local High Street liberating plants from your local florist! Just open your eyes...let your senses soak up the power of what's around you. Some of you may already have....some of you won't...in fact the majority won't...it's time for a new direction...the old one stinks.

I want to feel the Earth between my fingers and know that it's part of me and I'm part of it. I don't want to be sitting on a train heading for work through a backdrop of concrete and steel. That ain't human. We have all been deceived and in that deception we have been stripped of our senses and our sense of wonder. Be a rebel....be a nature terrorist...take an apple seed and plant it in the middle of a roundabout on the motorway somewhere! Scatter poppies all along the wasteground that fills the inner cities. Stick Ivy cuttings in the crevices of Council buildings. Tear down Private Beach signs! If it says do not walk on the grass then walk on the bloody grass what they gonna do 'shoot you'???? This is your world...it belongs to no-one else now let's go discover it!!!!!!



Ben (Ooops am I being controversial?)

[seaviewuk]

Are you being contraversial?

NO! You are being Squidgy

Do a search for his "health" posts and you will understand

Or are YOU him???????

[Appuleius]

Has Squidgy had a metamorphosis.

[deezel]

Has Squidgy had a metamorphosis.

No, but I do believe a bottle of single malt has found a new home

Hi,

@ Dee.......... LMAO

STS

[Ben]

Oh dear....so many in denial...it's worse than I thought! I can see this is going to be a long haul. Yes I love Malt but at this time sadly there is none coarsing through my veins. Simply the vitality that spring brings and the wonders of the earth begin to yield that which has been hidden for a whole season. The lambs are in the field now. Do you see many where you are? The tulips are breaking through in a riot of red, yellow and deep purple. The hills and mountains are losing their snow. The deer are returning to the higher ground. The pheasants are at the back door. The dogs are running across the field and not sheltering from blizzards. Spring has truly arrived. It gets punctuated by the odd hail storm but we're used to it being this high up. All around is the smell of nature in all it's glory and when I plant up the first of my livvy daisies the soil smells rich, ready. This is my life. I wouldn't want it any other way! Bring the dogs home put my feet up for the night and have a wee Dram in front of the log fire. Outside the wild and mysterious calls of the Highlands ring around the glens and valleys but there's a happy man in his little cottage....he knows every sound...every call....every breath of wind that brushes against the tall grass outside. Such can be life....such is mine....if only others could see.

Ben

[pam]

Ben,
I know just exactly what you mean. Theres nothhing like the freshness of the year that spring brings. The young animals being born, plants coming to life, seeds being sown, trees developing their buds.
Not one for Malt whisky, prefer a glass of red, but we too have the log fire and the dogs. The spring kind of awakens the spirituality in you don't you think? I must make for the hills , the beach and the woods this week to remind myself of who I am and why...Thank you for a delightful post.
As for concrete and steel....take it away. along with the litter and crowds. I'll nip down to Glasgow for a night out sometime and get the fix from that. Think Findhorn is calling me bye.

[deezel]

....so many in denial...

Oh Ben. Dear Ben. Not as many as you think

...and living on a unique shingle bank growing out into the English channel which abounds with birds, flowers and other wildlife, from nesting gulls and terns to the rare medicinal leech, denial is not in my dictionary.
The shingle spit is an important landfall for many migrating birds in spring and autumn, and in summer is ablaze with special wild flowers such as yellow-horned poppies and with dancing butterflies. In autumn and winter it is home to hundreds of ducks and geese.
Its unparalled in its variety of wildlife with more than 600 different types of plants – about one third of all plants found throughout the UK.

We have the strongest sunlight, the lowest rainfall and two weeks less of frost than the rest of the UK.We are set apart, at the 'fith quarter', the end of the globe, the largest shingle formation, with Cape Canaveral, in the world

[oldboy2000]

Know what you mean Ben & Pam....I have a fortnight a year of that peace , enjoyment and tranquility, sometimes two fortnights!

Yes I spent most of my pre 11 school days living in the Countryside (Near Dumfries ) nearest neighbour was a farm 200 yards away! ...buses to town twice a week, and a mile and half walk to the village school (No car to school in those days!!) . My memories are just great of this time.

[Appuleius]

If I may be allowed to darken a light corner!

The lighter nights herald the coming of spring, giving the local boy racers more time to terrorise the neighbourhood, and increase the profits of the tyre retailers, sadly not the insurance companies.
The local lads and laddets grace the high street with their bottles of booze clamped to their pouting and reddened lips (and you should see the girls there nearly as bad!) eventually to deposit the contents of their stomachs ( 10 bottles of booze, 2 big Macs and a a shaving off one of those hunks of meat on a stick, kebab I believe they are named, the meat, not the human meat on a stick in a mini skirt!) into a shop doorway or splashed up Burton's window painting a technicolour work of art fit to grace the New Tate Gallery.
Sometimes we are entertained by the constabulary on very large equinine mounts riding through the pedestrian areas, looking very grand but achieving the result of the square root of sod all.
Even these mounted upholders of the law have to avoid the base balled capped youths racing bikes that tear through the pedestrian area frightening old ladies, and young (single?) mums with push chairs with snotty nosed kids in them, and even a snottier nosed parent propelling the said conveyance, whilst pulling at a non duty paid fag obtained at the local smugglers den.
Ah, I could go on but I do not want to spread even more doom and gloom.
Oh to be in England now theat spring is here!

[Ben]

You must escape!!!! You must flee!!! Lose all sense of rationality and employment and head for the hills. The stress you will endure shall surely take it's toll. A man/woman can only hold out for so long before they break. DO NOT LET THEM BREAK YOU! There are other places...places where children respect elders...talk politely and don't drink alcohol until they are of the legal age. The Black Isle is such a place and I am priviledged to live there. My heart goes out to you coz I've been there. I was even a policeman at one time in one of those inner city ghettoes. Do not let them destroy your spirit.

Ben

[oldboy2000]

The Black Isle where they hang all the pieces of cloth on trees

[Danmancs]

Horses for courses... Not everyone wants to live in the wilderness, all the time. Some people enjoy the hustle and bustle of the big city, mixing with different people and enjoying the man-made activities that are on offer. Personally, I'm off to live in Australia soon, because I'm sick of what living in the suburbs has to offer, but if I had the opportunity, I'd love to have a penthouse appartment in the heart of the west end of London.

It's rather rude to say all people should aspire to your way of life, and rather presumptious to think they would want to. Personally, I would go stir crazy living in the middle of no-where with no-one to talk to all day. Or even worse, live amongst a load of sweaty socks!

Danno.

[Ben]

Ah my friend I see what you mean...I too lived in a penthouse apartment in Chelsea for nigh on ten years....but to be honest I was insulated from real life! It's not like living on an estate where kids terrorise everyone. But yes I see what you mean...I enjoyed London but it kinda drains you...it grinds you down and when you see yourself getting off the train at Victoria and marching with the thousands of others to work you realise that you are in fact part of a 'system'. I have no wish to be a toy in someone else's game. My life is mine...and no-one is going to take it away from me. And you are correct it is presumptious of me to think that everyone should aspire to my kind of life because it is horses for courses as you say. However I would add that those that do not wish the kind of life I have are hypnotised or mesmerised. I may be wrong but I'm sure you'd rather have my true thoughts on the matter than have me try and beat about the bush. I may be completely wrong...but I fly my flag regardless.

Ben

Edited to add.....I have horse and sheep and chickens and lots and lots of flowers to talk to...and yes they do talk back!

[Danmancs]

Originally posted by Ben
However I would add that those that do not wish the kind of life I have are hypnotised or mesmerised..... Edited to add.....I have horse and sheep and chickens and lots and lots of flowers to talk to...and yes they do talk back!

who's hypnotised?!



Different people enjoy different things out of life, and at different stages of their lives; if we were all the same, it would be a very very dull place indeed.

Dan.

[Ben]

And that's my point in a way..the vast majority are the same. Up for work..off to work...finish work...pay the mortgage...pay the phone bill....whole life depends on decisions that other people make....no control. We are the same......and seriously have you never had a conversation with a petunia? It is liberating.

Ben

[Danmancs]

My parents own a flower shop, so I practically grew up there... I learned not to listen to a word those damned daffodils said, it always got me in trouble!

Hi,

As written on the fence alongside the M40 after the Beaconsfield junction heading into London...

Why do I do this every day ?..

Tune in, turn off and drop out.

Myself I am at peace with my life.. I didn't used to be and it sent me slightly mad... I'm better now though !.

STS

[Ben]

Would I be being too personal or presumptious to ask if that peace came from within.....or without?

In other words did you take control and create it or did outside forces lead you there!?

Ben

[squidgy]

I agree with Ben, I think the world is a good place, and it's good to have a look round now and then.

I also don't know why Appul doesn't move. It's make or break time with your local community. Why do you stay? Is it because you think you have participated in the community? If so - then what thanks are you getting? Your front door smells of pee and half-digested kebabs.

If you can convince them of the error of their ways and get them into cognitive therapy, then hats off to you. The value of your property might even go up when they start therapy. But if it was me, I'd just cut my losses, up sticks and move out.

That said, I very much believe in the community. You are stronger as part of a community than you are as an individual on your own. City living might not be so bad if people actually talked to their neighbours. Residents associations and neighbourhood watch schemes are fantastic ways of strengthening local community spirit. Religious institutions and leisure centres also help. Pubs aren't so good, though. If I had my way, pubs would allow you to bring your own drink but would only serve soft drinks - and alcoholic drinks would only be available from a pharmacist with a prescription.

Hi,

I fizzed up and bost about 8 years ago...

Divorce, moving house, problems seeing my kids, awkward bloke marrying my ex wife and causing me much misery with my access arrangements.

I lost the plot........ Was off work for some 9 months or so and I guess I had a type of breakdown. During this period I took stock of my life and myself, and with professional help put it back together again bit by bit.

I am made of very firm stuff and I guess these days it's even better.

Guinness helps too !

STS

[Ben]

If I knew how to make these little smilies you'd have a big thumbs up and a huge smile....well done mate! You got there!

Ben

Hi,

Thanks...... It wasn't all easy but it's better now.

Knowing that the people closest to you actually value you as the person you are is a source of great strength too.

I had missed that bit............

STS

[squidgy]

Was off work for some 9 months or so and I guess I had a type of breakdown. During this period I took stock of my life and myself, and with professional help put it back together again bit by bit.

Wow! You never let on ...

Knowing that the people closest to you actually value you as the person you are is a source of great strength too.

That's so true. Thing is, you've got to have someone close to you before they can actually value you as a person. But if there's only one person close to you, then you become co-dependent, and your whole world is at risk of crashing down if something bad happens to them. So you need several people close to you - and that's why it's so important to be part of a community.

I agree that city life sucks if you live on your own, and if you never speak to anyone in the other flats in your block, or to the other people on that crowded commuter train. And I agree that the Scottish highlands scenery looks nice. But actually moving there won't solve your problems - because living out in the sticks will only make you even more socially isolated than you are now.

[Ben]

Hah I gotta disagree there...I live in such an isolated place....I've never, ever lived anywhere where I get so many visitors...so much socialising! Because we're all so far apart we make a big effort to get round the neighbours....and hey we all muck in with each other. Right now one of my friends is building a school for children with Autism....is it some kind of corporate job? Nope...it's all us neighbours from tens of miles around who are turning up with wood, glass, timber and even buckets of nails....and that's how we work...you clear my drains I'll give you a Salmon (Won't say where it came from mind you)...Fix my door and you'll get a couple of pheasants! Trust me there's more socialising goes on up here than meets the eye! God I'm remembering last week which is a bit of a fuzzy haze. LOL Love it!

Ben

[deezel]

from Dee

No, but I do believe a bottle of single malt has found a new home

from ben

....which is a bit of a fuzzy haze.

Told Ya

[Ben]

'tis a fair cop!

Ben

[oldboy2000]

My nephews a Head Gamekeeper on an Estate Further North Ben, won't tell him about the Salmon!!

[Ben]

LOL.....Good job too!!! Every freezer in The Black Isle would be getting raided!!!! (Including the local police station)!

Ben

[oldboy2000]

And mine !!!!

Guess what we have for supper tonight........YES... Poached Salmon.... (poached as in cooking!!!!!)