Sub title to this post: Do Rocking Fossils Rage?
Is being a rocking fossil (as in appreciating all you have done and achieved and are and the fun you have) just a distraction from moaning about The Shit Show (let’s stick to the abbreviation from here – TSS) that is so much of life? That being able to see the other side and the fun side and the point isn’t always useful or even possible. Maybe fossils don’t always rock. Maybe they actually like to rage.
TSS includes:
Phone signal
Internet based everything
Cashless society (whatever that is)
Telephone queueing systems instead of a receptionist
Parking restrictions, charges and organisation
Politics: local national and international
Getting a health service appointment
Organised religion and it’s organisers
Other people’s opinions
Aching joints
Lateness
Earliness
Screw tops
Cork screws
The price of fish
Food fads (other peoples’)
These things can make me feel mildly irritated and also make me so white heat cross I cannot restrain strings (and strings of) expletives that take us far beyond the mild “This is what they mean by TSS”. Some days rage happens – from nowhere – and releasing it is the only option. Far, far more enjoyable than self control and a wry shrug.
I actually love:
The post office
Our bin men
Doctors everywhere
Physios
The dentist
The peace in and smell of churches
Parking spaces near the door
Talking to people for hours
Internet shopping delivery
Meeting people
Fish
Wine
Eating what I like and what makes me feel well
So the flip side of everything that is irksome and rubbish (TSS) or that inspires white heat rage, is that there is something useful, good even, in most things. So I am never going to be pleased about seeing a Doctor in 14 weeks rather than next, or not being able to find the corkscrew when I have bought a bottle with a cork in it for the first time since 2018, or not having change for a parking meter that decided today to not take cards, or coming out without my card but a load of change when I needed a card to pay to park. I won’t go on. But seeing the good in this stuff. No. A smidge of rage sure. Smidge or bucket of. Depends on the day.
We all know that aggression to staff will not be tolerated. Why this should need to be pointed out I don’t know. But as it is endlessly pointed out, usually in a rash of laminated notices that follow you around public buildings like the furniture in Beauty and the Beast then it must need to be. Aggression is simply directing your rage at the human. Not sure if kicking the parking meter is in the same camp. And as kicking it can only hurt your foot I doubt it. But if you own the sort of boots or feet that can damage the parking meter I expect it is. So rage then. Dance around that car park clutching that foot, but don’t direct that rage at a human.
Rocking fossils do rage. You can’t rock all the time. A bit of slip up is normal. In life, as a fossil, whatever. And any fossil who rushes around Pollyanna ing everything (it’s a book – read it – I can’t be bothered to explain if you don’t know, in short she was glad about everything) would normally not be rocking. Good and kind but without the edge, the cynical glint, the history of liking the odd, the different, the other stuff – that sums up the rocking part of fossil. So fossils who rock can appreciate without needing to look for the good endlessly. And without being glad – as in nauseatingly cheerful. Leave that to Pollyanna.
So where does Mick Jagger fit in. Well if the title of this post was “Pollyanna is Glad” you might not have read this far. I expect. So Mick Jagger is a rock star. Do not confuse that with being a rocking fossil. He is. But still it isn’t the same. Some rock stars aren’t fossils. And some don’t rock as a fossil. But does he rage? We don’t know but he does have an absolute head start. Because I expect he doesn’t actually pay to park. Does the car (I assume with a driver)(or plenty of change, cards etc) he drives or travels in ever stop in a council car park. Or any car park. He won’t expect to pay to park as he pulls up at say Wembley. Or Madison Square Gardens? He will never experience that white rage urge to kick that parking meter. So he can rock that coolness, that swagger. That rocking fossil wry smile. I wonder in spite of this head start in coolness does he have his breaking strain, his rage touch paper? Without stereo typing rock stars (laminated notice needed: Stereo typing of rock stars will not be tolerated), it might be listening to food fads that sets him off? Or some new guru’s trick for curing aching joints (surely he has them – the guru and the aching joints) which includes eating walrus snot or standing on one leg in a bath of ice for hours? We will never know. I also wonder if the rock stars who threw televisions out of windows were just looking for change for the meter.
In the meantime back in the normal world with TSS, know that rocking fossils can and do rage but then we reassert our rockingness. Knowing that they got through, made that appointment, found that corkscrew, parked that car. That they didn’t get arrested. Upset anyone behind the desk. Or let themselves down too badly. Return to the slightly wry smile camp. With added eye roll if the self control button needs to dial up. So fossils you carry on. Rage at TSS. It can help. Leave the gladness to Pollyanna. And Mick to the walrus snot or whatever goes on in his world. Next time you kick the parking meter visualise Mick eating that snot. Unscrew that bottle, ring for a chat, breathe. Rock.