Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Time Warp Wives













'Living like this makes me happier'


Time Warp Wives: Meet the women who really do live in the past:

I love nothing better than fastening my pinny round my waist and baking a cake for Kevin in my 1950s kitchen.

I put on some lovely Frank Sinatra music and am completely lost in my own little fantasy world. In our marriage, I am very much a lady and Kevin is the breadwinner and my protector.

via growabrain

4 comments:

Radmila said...

A new kind of fetish.

Don't you sometimes feel like we need some catastrophe or something to bring people back to focusing on reality, and the things that really matter?

John M. said...

I wonder how far we can go?

There always seems to be some new twist on fetish and obsession.

Now with globalization and the internet, lifestyle options permutate to infinity. Etruscan steampunk roller derby? People that collect computer keyboards? Polygamist survivalist cults?

A major catastrophe, notably one that would shut off communication and television, would certainly bring us back to basics. Reality, I'm not sure.

I suspect that social chaos is a by-product of lack of focus on reality. History bears this out.

During times of upheaval, many strange incidents and stories have been reported and recounted. Reality seems to unravel and it takes some serious discipline to get everything running in some sort of order.

Despite my egalitarian and somewhat libertarian, even anarchic, views, I see some form of social order as desirable. Not lock-step zombie obedience, just a civilized outlook and a spirit of fair play would be fine. And keeping the killing and robbing down to a minimum would be nice, too. Essentially the product of a focus upon reality and the things that really matter.

I had better stop before I exceed my limits. You pushed a button.

Radmila said...

I know exactly what you mean.

...and then I sit and wonder why I care that someone wastes their time living in the past (or what they imagine to be the way that it was), or wastes time putting expensive items in blenders for a youtube audience.

John M. said...

I think you care because that's not how you want to be.

We all waste time and many of us regret it, so it makes us cringe to see someone squandering their hours here, especially in what we would consider useless and ridiculous pursuits.

I have an older friend that met some of my younger friends. My younger friends liked to play video games. Many hours, many games. We sat around for a while watching them play. I noticed my older friend watching their hands.

After a while, he said "You know, if you guys spend half as much time learning the guitar or trumpet as you do on these games, you'd be Jimi frickin' Hendrix."

Perhaps another reason it gets under your skin is knowing the fact that there's a lot of work to do. People are starving and dying needlessly, life sucks for a substantial portion of the human race and it's not so hot for most of the rest. Lots of room for improvement.

My maternal grandfather had a sixth grade education and knew more about more than most college graduates I know today. Back in his day, people used their spare time and energy to learn and do things. Play musical instruments, study history, become ham operators, learn how to fix and make things. I'm not saying that people don't do this now, but realistically, few people I know have the kind of well-roundedness that many of those folks from older generations had.

There's nothing wrong with relaxing and having fun, in fact it's necessary. I've had more than my share. But there are limits.

I feel your dismay.