Monday 11 January 2016

Time's little tricks

 With David Bowie's passing today it stirs a lot of memories and thoughts. I already hate January so maybe this melancholy turn of mind is just amplified with this news. I liked Bowie... I remember the first time I listened to Hunky Dory... when I didn't like him that much! On a rare occasion I skipped school (in Sixth form I might add) a girl called Melanie took me to her house for a cuppa. We weren't friends as such but we found refuge in each other's truancy. I was 16 and shy. She put on  a record (as we used to call it)-Hunky Dory... I had heard of it of course but was more of an Elton John fan-but I felt duty bound to listen and enthuse politely. It was a bit "far out" for me at the time and Bowie was one of the artistes on Top of the Pops who provoked the most expletives from my dad-who didn't really embrace the androgynous nature of David Bowie- or in fact any of those who dressed less than masculinely.

That said, my boyfriend who appeared the next year on, did like Bowie and we always shared music and often (with odd exceptions) adopted each others tastes. So Bowie then became the portfolio of our young adult lives. The significant songs matched to significant events and the memories attached. The excitement and familiarity of songs over the years passing to our children too-one of whom came to our 70s Pearl wedding dressed as Aladdin Sane! So, there is a catch in the throat and a small tear in the corner of the eye. Its not because he is a celebrity. Its because he has written the soundtrack to our and many others lives. Because he symbolises our lost youth and reminds us that we are all mortal! 
Bowie ever changing

Time plays a nasty little trick on us poor mortals-when we are young we hear our elders reminiscing about youth, which we dismiss. We have a quiet arrogance-we secretly believe we will not age or die. But suddenly, we wake up one day and we realise we have probably already had more years on earth than we are likely to have left. And its a shock! The death of someone immortalized on the screen or disc is a shock to us because it nudges our own mortality. When a young person dies its tragic and we acknowledge this-but we pretend its rare and unusual. Some of us say things like "only the good die young" to make it seem acceptable. But in this pretense that life goes on forever we feel the need to rationalize when it obviously doesn't! We trot out platitudes like "he had a good innings" or "he was getting on"- but it just isn't true-its never a good innings. All deaths are painful to those loved ones left behind and it matters not if you are 5 or 95! Life is precious and we want to hang on to it. Days like today just amplify the fact that death is one thing nobody-no matter how wealthy, successful, clever, beautiful or famous can avoid forever! And that's what makes it sad! That's what in the end is the great leveler and when we react or mourn-granted at different levels and extremes-to the death of someone like Bowie-its that human connection. We aren't just mourning him... we are mourning our own eventual demise too.
When a young person dies its tragic and we acknowledge this-but we pretend its rare and unusual.
Homage to Aladdin Sane

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