The Day After Christmas...

OK, I've just resurfaced after what seems like several days of excessive food and alcohol consumption. Not to mention staying up to ungodly hours of the night watching old films. I think I've just about returned to some kind of functionality as a human being, although I badly need a shave and a soak in a warm bath - luckily I haven't left the house in nearly forty-eight hours, following my return from a hot, sweaty and very overcrowded pub in the early hours of Christmas Day. Anyway, I vaguely remember having an idea on Christmas Eve for a really profound and insightful post that I was going to write today. Needless to say, it has now faded in into alcohol-induced oblivion. Well, most of it. I seem to recall that it had something to do with the fact that, as children, we're imbued with fantastic imaginations, which allow us to see the wonder in life. However, as adults, we allow it to seep away, becoming so bogged down with paying mortgages, doing unfulfilling jobs and just the whole business of everyday living, that we lose sight of the wonder which still underlies it all.

That was the gist of it, anyway. I also recall that whilst watching Che, Part One on DVD yesterday afternoon, I noted the titular revolutionary's opinion that, in war, a numerically inferior, relatively poorly equipped force can triumph against superior forces if its members are driven by a clear idea of what they are fighting for - an army with a just cause, I took him to mean, will always be better motivated. Which, sort of, ties in with what I was rambling about above. You see, in my booze addled estimation, by letting go of our imaginary lives, dismissing them as being childish, we also let go of all those dreams and ambitions that used to fuel us. When I say 'ambition', I don't mean a desire to be promoted at work, or own a bigger car. No, I'm talking about those dreams we decry as being impractical and unrealistic - to write a novel, say, or to be an artist, or find true love, perhaps. Without such dreams to aspire to, be lose our motivation to do anything but just exist. So, if you have an impractical dream, no matter how trivial it might seem, you really should go for it. As a child, for instance, as a result of watching too many US films and TV series, I fell in love with American cars. Everybody told me that the idea of owning one was stupid - but many years later I did: twice. I've owned both a 1979 Mustang and 1978 Camaro Z-28 at different times. Both were wildly impractical in the UK, but I loved them and have never regretted the years I spent driving them. So, if I can do it, anyone can!