Football or fine art?

Well maybe not "fine art" but something you have made yourself?

There is yet another piece in this morning's paper suggesting that the government should put some money into holding the "grand final" of the football in this state. (It usually gets held in the neighbouring state which is currently in lock down because of the Covid19 virus. They even get a public holiday for it there.) Why?

Now yes, before you complain, I know people "love their footy". I know they have had to do without it most of the year.  I feel genuinely sorry for those of you who have had to miss out on all the excitement. (Mind you if you support one particular team perhaps it is just as well you haven't been able to watch them lose one match after another.) But I will say it again, "Football is no longer a sport. It is a multi-million dollar business with overpaid employees. If it cannot support itself then it needs to cut costs or go out of business." 

With all the other calls on tax revenue right now football matches do not need to be subsidised, should not be subsidised.  If money is to be spent on entertaining people then there are other and much more important things it should be spent on, especially now.

It seems likely that Covid19 is going to change the way we live. The mass gatherings we have taken for granted may still take place in the future but they will be taken with precautions. The numbers allowed to gather may be reduced to more manageable proportions. People may not be able to freely attend them. Perhaps it will be a matter of providing proof of vaccination or having your temperature taken or going on a particular day because your family name starts with J or Z or Q or E.  Any number of things might happen.

But we need to do something else as well. We need to encourage people to find other ways of entertaining themselves. Television, and then the internet, has allowed people to simply press a button on the remote control to be "entertained".  During various stages of "lockdown" some people found that was insufficient. They wanted more than that. Those of us who knit and crochet or embroider of do some other sort of handicraft suddenly found that other people were interested in our work. That was surely a good thing?

The priest from our local Anglican church turned up last Saturday - and disappeared into the Senior Cat's shed. It is something the Senior Cat and I are very, very pleased about. D.... is learning woodwork - a particularly suitable occupation for a priest perhaps? D.... is also going to the local "Men's Shed" - where men get together and do things like woodwork, a little metalwork and other such activities. All this is good, very good. People are learning to do things with their hands. 

The Senior Cat has always encouraged this. He encouraged it in every school he worked in and led. He taught numerous people outside school. He is still teaching people. (These days it is simple conjuring tricks, complex puzzles and origami but he is still teaching people to do them.) I believe it is one of the reasons he is still intellectually alert at 97. He "does things".

I read the regular blog of someone who is in her eighties. She knits and reads and is learning Italian. Recently she made some sourdough bread that looks far better than anything I have ever made. I said this to someone who looked at me and said, "Why would anyone bother to do all that when they are that old?" Why not? To me this person is not "old". Her mind is very active. She is still keen to try something new and different. Yes, she follows some sport - but it is not to the exclusion of other things. She "does things". I am sure she is the better for it.

I am trying to "do things" as well - read widely, write, knit, crochet and more. There is always another language I need to know something about too. The intellectual challenge is something I need and the physical challenge is there as well.  I get restive very quickly if I am sitting without doing something with my hands. I do not feel comfortable sitting doing nothing more than watching a screen. 

I have been told I "don't know how to relax" but I think I do. It is intensely satisfying to come to the end of the news service on television and know that I have achieved the goal I set myself in knitting as well. I do relax then. Later in the evening, after a few chapters of a book, I can curl up on my sleeping mat and sleep soundly while I do not need to worry about the safety of the Senior Cat. 

If we are going to spend money on getting people to relax then I suggest we spend it on giving them the skills they need in order to relax rather than supporting over paid footballers. Let's make football a game again. It might actually be more relaxing to watch it then too.