Don't Much like People Anymore...

There was a time when I liked people...all sorts of different people...from the aloof Indian Psychologists to the Hungarian who had OCD and counted his tea bags when you came on duty and then again when you went off...to make certain you hadn't used any I suppose...don't think anyone ever asked him why he did so. He wore rimless glasses and brought his dog to the hospital everyday...it curled up in a corner of the ward and was totally unfazed if one of the patients threw a tantrum...

I fell hopelessly in love with the Commander of the British Land forces in the Falklands...quite forgetting he was a soldier first and foremost and there was me, always having been a pacifist since I was old enough to grasp the idea of killing people.

Grandpa Bagnall was another man I loved to bits...he was a grumpy old bugger and used to shake his fist at people...especially the man who came to mow the lawns. And the postie if he skidded on the gravel. And Granny's cat when it dug holes in the flower-beds. And his daughters Jack Russell's when they yapped...he once shook his fist at Patch, his eldest grandson...'Whatever has Patch done' I asked him...'Gorn orf with that floozy' was the reply...I never met the floozy, so couldn't pass an opinion.

There is Barbara, who buried her husband on a hillside in Donegal and writes books about being green and wears a ratty old coat with the hem coming down...she has a moustache and grows all her own food and must surely be pushing eighty years...but there's not a bad bone in her.

And dear Elsie...she is a new enough widow with four great strapping sons and a staunch believer that God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh and she home-schooled her lads...she is sweet and kind and thoughtful...sits on my feet when I'm on the settee and we launch into fits of giggles about nothing in particular.

Our neighbours are hardworking farmers...no time to poke or prod...no inclination to be unkind for unkindness sake...there is only one we'd be wary of...a relative newcomer to the street who doesn't follow the informal 'rules' of living together cheek by jowl.

The people I've mentioned, were and are, totally different in their occupations...their own personal view of the world around us might be quite alien to others...

I've been trying today to see any of those I love or have loved in the past being mean and spiteful...deliberately calling another an unkind name...spinning out an argument for all it was worth...almost glorying in someone's distress.

They are no better than the Trolls who appear every so often...worse than the Trolls actually, because the attacks are personal.

I cannot understand them nor do I wish to...