The World Has Gone Fucking Mad!

I now understand the meaning of the word gobsmacked, the dictionary definition is flabbergasted or astounded.  It is Sunday morning towards the end of October 2021, the world is trying its best to vanish up its own arse hole to escape the profundity of a thing they have called Covid.  Governments are trying to tell their people that their immune systems are a waste of time and need eradicating by a simple two jab process followed by a third booster jab and another and another.  By Christmas there will not be many of us left.  But I  exaggerate,  let me just get to the story I was going to write.

A few years ago through circumstance I met this chap, a high flyer in Howth Yacht Club, a prestigious organisation, populated by the best of Dublin society.  He asked me to give a talk on the Connaught Rangers to a busload of judges, barristers and general bee’s knees during their annual jaunt to the country side.  I did and was well received and the acquaintance developed.  He was a yachtsman of fame, he had sailed round the world, just him and his wife and he was known on the speaking circuit for the relating of his travels and experiences.  He could certainly put his subject over, I listened and was impressed.  He started a relationship with a Boyle woman and so was often around.

I met him whilst on a walk a few weeks ago.  He looked in fine form and I broached the thought I had.  My grandson was mad keen on sailing and had left school because of the onerous burden these people who call themselves teachers had put on their pupils  He had left school in order to pursue his ideas and was now in the process of being educated into the sailing world.  I thought it would be great if my friend could install into my lad the benefits of sailing, the opportunities and the knowledge required to even think of sailing and navigating the world.  My friend, let us call him Pat, I do not want to embarrass him to much, was all for it.  A meeting was arranged, his place at 11.00am today.

The two of us in our best clobber arrived, introductions made and we were just about to step over the threshold when Pat said “are you vaccinated .”  My grandson said no.  “Why” was the retort.  Grandson, who is 17, said “I do not believe it is safe, it is an experiment”.  By now I was on my way back down the garden path.  Violence was not far from my mind.  It seems, so grandson said afterwards, that Old Pat said “I cannot let you in I am 79 years of age, I cannot take the chance.  I do not want to die.”.  I was in the car, engine running, Joe appeared looking stunned.  we drove off, me spitting feathers, grandson using words I found easy to accept from one so young given the circumstance.

This man Pat must be telling lies to himself.  He had sailed the world, just him and his now deceased wife.  He had faced dangers that even I would have stalled at.  He could have been drowned, eaten by sharks or even been plagued by scurvy but their he was pouting nonsense at his front door, definitely as safe as houses on dry land.  He obviously had never listened to the experts, he must never have read up on the subject.  He had more chance of a Ryan Air jet crashing into his house on its approach to Knock airport than he had of catching Covid from a 17 year old.  He also, so it turned out, had been double jabbed has an extra precaution.  He had reached eternity.

The bigger picture however is more stunning.  For the first time I have understood the power the government have had on people of this country.  The flock, who cannot put a simple question to their shepherds.  Namely “what kind of fuckery is this”.

Pat had sailed round the world, was fearless.  Nobody should have been able to worry him.  But their he was at 79 years of age, shit scared that a young kid could kill him with all the insurances he had taken.  By 79 anyway you should have come to terms with your impending death.  He should have realised by now that his name was Pat and not Methuselah.  I am 75, have come to terms with my passing at some stage and certainly not scared of anybody or anything.  With age comes certainty, I have it, Old Pat does not and that is a shame.  He must ask everybody he comes into contact with whether they are jabbed.  He will hardly make friends that way but I suppose all you really want in old age is isolation.  It helps you come to terms with your fallibility.

How many more people are there in this town, in fact every town in Ireland, in the world ,are living a waking death.  What a massive shame the politicians are guilty of in casting this shadow on the elderly.  Surely the governments job is to let dignity lie with the old.

So I am absolutely gobsmacked, astounded, astonished at why and how the world has gone.