Disconnection

Monday 17 November 2008

Walking into the food and vegetable section at the supermarket this evening, Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division began playing over the PA. And it was just too weird! Hearing that most depressing of songs in the bright fluorescent light of a food emporium, squeezing tomatoes and avocadoes for freshness, sometimes it's the smallest things to make you feel the disconnect :) The lead singer of Joy Division, Ian Curtis, committed suicide - which is, like, duh when you hear that song. I despise that song. It made me want to go and impale myself on a pineapple head and rip my entrails out and drape them all over the mushrooms.

Driving home on the radio, the DJ back-announced the last song and, without missing a beat before announcing the next, launched into a promotion for Sexpo, the three day consumerfest of goods for the bedroom coming up in Melbourne, a cornucopia of vibrators and other spicy toys, with a free porn DVD on arrival. At Sexpo you can do and buy all sorts of weird things. There is a sex-themed ghost train, like the ones you find in amusement parks except that throughout this train are different scenes of people having sex. And I have plenty of friends who go to Sexpo each year, and drop it casually into conversation as if they're going to a cattle convention or going shopping for aromatherapy products. And the disconnect is strong.

My Mum works at an aged-care facility. Yesterday she told me about how next year, for six months, she will be working at one of two other facilities while the one she works at is being refurbished. The last refurbishment was 20 years ago, it is a perfectly fine facility, but apparently it's required to tear it all down, perfectly good housing, to rebuild it all. Makes me wonder how deep the guilt must lie, and how stupid the bureacratic hoops that must be jumped through, that taxpayers' dollars can be spent getting facilities that are fine the way they are up to relevant "standards". Makes me wonder how much of it is simply so everyone can sleep better at night knowing that our elderly (in this case those with dementia and/or schizophrenia) are being looked after in luxury.

None of these three things are connected. But they all made me feel disconnected :)

5 comments

  1. Good post
    You really make me laugh..."It made me want to go and impale myself on a pineapple head and rip my entrails out and drape them all over the mushrooms..."LOL! lovely
    I know, the disconnect is everywhere, you're right. It's eerie...
    I'm praying against the numbness...I get tired of being indignant, when no one seems to care sometimes, don't know if that makes any sense..

    ReplyDelete
  2. you can't help be notice how strange it all is (human activity) when you move from scene to scene.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Manuela - "I get tired of being indignant, when no one seems to care sometimes" - TOTALLY!!! Me too! In fact, what began the prompting for this post was when my Mum was telling me about it all and I was getting really worked up, and I could see she was thinking, "Why are you getting so worked up? It's not like you can do anything about it" which gets me worked up even more. My family doesn't understand me in this way, I don't think. I'm glad you do :)

    Kent - it's really weird when you move from scene to scene, ain't it? And when you stick them next to each other, just makes you think, sure is tiring living with this Beast.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love that song:)

    the Jose Gonzales Version is better. But I still have a soft spot for Ian:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Monk of Libraryness - you like this song? Surprise surprise!! Surely any version would be better than the original, but I will pass on the listen thanks :)

    ReplyDelete

Newer Older