Although not a great poetry fan, I have to admit that some of those poets knew a thing or two. Philip Larkin often has an unexpectedly sideways view of life and I have always enjoyed his lines from the poem Days: ‘What are days for? Days are where we live.’ On one level it looks like simple logic, but on another it is quite unusual to think of days as a place to inhabit. I think he might have been an early advocate of mindfulness whether he’d have liked it or not, and I suspect not.
Larkin might also have been talking about our current year, with each day stretching out like a week before us. We have done nothing else if not inhabit every minute of these days, most of them in our own houses and too often in our own heads. I am waiting for a complete shake-up of the days I live in – I’m tired of them. I want different, more interesting days. At the moment the highlights of my days seem to be solving the wordwheel in the newspaper and discovering the last peanut butter cookie at the bottom of the tin. Which shouldn’t be underestimated, but still…
I’ve been reading about Bertrand Piccard, who is a wonderful combination of explorer and psychiatrist. How many people can say that? His advice for dealing with the pandemic is to concentrate on the present and not think too much about the future. He and his co-balloonist Brian Jones completed the first non-stop circumnavigation of the globe in a balloon in 1999. Picard then went on to launch a project to build a solar-powered plane, obtain his pilot’s licence and then fly the plane around the world with André Borschberg, a fellow Swiss adventurer. With a maximum speed of 30mph (although it could go faster if the sun was shining particularly brightly) and many technical hitches along the way, their trip required deep reserves of bravery, resourcefulness and determination. His credentials as an adventurer are obvious, but he says he achieved his goal using the tools of mindfulness and meditation, concentrating solely on the present and not thinking about the future. Which I think is great advice when you’re confronted with overheating batteries and punishing crosswinds, but I’m not sure it’s much help to me at the moment.
Instead I’m ignoring the present and thinking what a perfect future day would look like. It would probably involve a view of the Amalfi Coast, fresh mozzarella and tomato salad, a chilled glass of something sparkling and wonderful company. Now that’s a day I could live in.
May I sit by you looking at the view of the Amalfi Coast with that glass of something sparkling? Not sure I qualify as wonderful company but I’d give it a go!
Of course you can – I can see you there now!