Alternative Universes

I have a theory (which is always code for I have thought that something might me true but deep down I really know it is just rubbish) that everyone has a recurring ideal of what life is like from what they consider their peak time in life. I have this strange image of the beer garden in a canal-side pub somewhere in Birmingham in the late 70s. I don’t actually think that I am there amongst the long hairs and the real ale which they are downing with relish. A whole lifestyle is suggested by this, home to tastefully decorated flats and progressive rock music. To me now, this sounds really boring and in the late 70s I was 14 rather than 20 so this cannot be my ideal view of life but it always makes me think on what my ideal lifestyle would be. This is rather like wishing that things had been different in the past so that the present was better. Wishing for things to have been different is never a good idea because removing one bad thing from the past could easily open up the possibility of many other bad things, like in Stephen Fry's Making History. The world is safe when it is not played about with. You can influence the future but you should only celebrate or grieve for the past.

I do have another image that appeals to me much more. It is sort of a mixture of my Primary School in Malvern and a 1960s library of art. The school had a wonderful rose garden where we were not allowed to run or shout so that people could sit and read and talk quietly. I wonder if they still have it or whether it has been sold to turn into executive housing. Anyway, the library in my image has sort of taken the place of the school buildings that ran along one side of the garden. I can wander in and out of the library with any book I want. It is always sunny in a sort of faded 1960s photographic way, as if the film for the image has been left out in the sun that it portrays. All very comforting. This library only deals with the past and the positive past at that. There is no access to news or the realities of life. Obviously it is an escape from things that were going on then both in the world and in my life. That sounds like there were some really bad things happening to me but I must stress that this is not some sort of coded revelation of arrestable offences against me. My childhood was mostly of the sunny summers and picnics variety at this time. So don't go phoning any psycho-analysts please. It is back to my idea that everyone has this ideal image. Of course none of these images involves having to work for a living.

All this has been sparked by my finding an old tape of what I considered to be the best pieces of pop-music. These are always responsible for an association with happy images. So we have I could be Happy by Altered Images, Airlane by Gary Numan, Ever So Lonely by Sheila Chandra and Northern Lights by Renaissance. It was this last one which set me off but they are all excellent.