Tuesday, 11th July 2006
I watched Big Brother last week. This is a startling revelation for me to make - akin to Cardinal Pell saying he frequented a gay bar (although ... ). The truth is, I've been at a bit of a loose end since Gabriel Kent threw himself off that building a couple of weeks ago and I've been searching for some replacement drama in my life. I miss Gabriel. Having spent months, maybe years, longing for his demise, I am left with some sense of disappointment that everything went pear shaped for him and he finally got his dues. As his body fell to the ground I jumped up and let out the sort of cheer normally reserved for World Cup goals and then fell back onto the sofa, deflated. It was all over and The Bill would never be the same.
Watching Big Brother is a bit like watching cricket - one stays glued to the screen in the hope that something exceptional will happen. Unfortunately, I didn't see the equivalent of a glorious catch or the hitting of a perfect six. The inhabitants of the Big Brother household wandered from room to room, self-obsessed to the nth degree, obviously troubled but unable to find the words to express the angst they were experiencing. They struggled to articulate and I struggled to comprehend their efforts, wishing I could be with them to assist in pinpointing their problems. I fluctuated between feeling compassion for them in their failure to notice that they already had all the ingredients for happiness - and irritation at their inability to structure a sentence without using the word "like" half a dozen times. Did I want to bring them home and talk kindly to them or did I want to ship them off to a refugee camp on the Palestinian/Israeli border so that they might reassess their priorities? Both of those.
Like the world, life in the Big Brother house is heaven or hell, depending on nothing but one's perception and, as we all know, basing one's happiness on the hope that other people will change their behaviour is futile. As Marcus Aurelius says, "Thou mayest swell with rage to bursting yet men will do as they did before".
I watched Big Brother last week. This is a startling revelation for me to make - akin to Cardinal Pell saying he frequented a gay bar (although ... ). The truth is, I've been at a bit of a loose end since Gabriel Kent threw himself off that building a couple of weeks ago and I've been searching for some replacement drama in my life. I miss Gabriel. Having spent months, maybe years, longing for his demise, I am left with some sense of disappointment that everything went pear shaped for him and he finally got his dues. As his body fell to the ground I jumped up and let out the sort of cheer normally reserved for World Cup goals and then fell back onto the sofa, deflated. It was all over and The Bill would never be the same.
Watching Big Brother is a bit like watching cricket - one stays glued to the screen in the hope that something exceptional will happen. Unfortunately, I didn't see the equivalent of a glorious catch or the hitting of a perfect six. The inhabitants of the Big Brother household wandered from room to room, self-obsessed to the nth degree, obviously troubled but unable to find the words to express the angst they were experiencing. They struggled to articulate and I struggled to comprehend their efforts, wishing I could be with them to assist in pinpointing their problems. I fluctuated between feeling compassion for them in their failure to notice that they already had all the ingredients for happiness - and irritation at their inability to structure a sentence without using the word "like" half a dozen times. Did I want to bring them home and talk kindly to them or did I want to ship them off to a refugee camp on the Palestinian/Israeli border so that they might reassess their priorities? Both of those.
Like the world, life in the Big Brother house is heaven or hell, depending on nothing but one's perception and, as we all know, basing one's happiness on the hope that other people will change their behaviour is futile. As Marcus Aurelius says, "Thou mayest swell with rage to bursting yet men will do as they did before".
posted by Rosie at 2:01 AM
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