BURN IT WHILE YOU CAN ?

T here ’ s an old saying that ’ s been around for years . An old saying my late dear old dad would often voice when things went awry ; and with three sons rampaging through the section there was always something going awry . “ What the hell is the world coming to ?”, he would seethe as he sought the hose to extinguish the fire we ’ d built behind the woodshed ... or when the bottle opener refused to do its job properly . I daresay the generations before him had also well-worn that phrase , and I daresay it still gets ignited today . I used it the other day when the southeasterly gusts sent the paper and cardboard recycling bins along our street on their way to the Chathams . Nothing is ever as we would like it to be , and it never will be . Only in ( another old saying ) a perfect world ... and we ’ re never going to get that . Mind you , the world would be perfect if there were no human beings on it . The dinosaurs lolled and jollied for millions of years . We ’ ve wrecked the place in about 3000 years . Another good old saying is “ If it ’ s not broke don ’ t fix it ”. That is a constant target for abuse ( usually by governments and councils ). I recall a boringly tragic gathering of senior journalists and consultants ( and I hate meetings anyway ) a decade or so back when I was a player in the media scrum . Some excited bloke had turned up to the office from out of town , in his tight brown trousers and pointed shoes , and he was demanding that things had to change . Things had to be turned around “ big time !” We all kind of looked at each other in bemusement as sales were good , advertising revenue was healthy and the morning teas were fine . He also used the word “ awesome ” about three times a minute . That was the turning point for me after six minutes , and I quietly got up . “ I have to use the rest room ... please excuse me ,” I said demurely . He sort of waved toward the door and off I went , and I didn ’ t go back . There was a pub about 70m along the road . Nirvana ! And I suspect , as I sat there with a pint of medicine ( liquid escapism ) before me , I would have mumbled “ what the hell is the world