Sidelined

Ah, found it!

There's this half-remembered phrase that has been peeking out at me every so often and I haven't known whether it was something I'd read or an original thought. Well, it's not original (more's the pity). It's Larkin. The last two lines of his poem "Afternoons".

He is observing young mothers supervising their children at the "new recreation ground' and concludes that...

"Something is pushing them
To the side of their own lives."

And the way he tells it it's so very, very sad.

I hadn't been experiencing it that way. Yes , the older we get, the more we're sidelined. But, phew, how nice it is not to be the protagonist of whatever drama is going forward- the centre of attention, the one on whom everyone and everything depends.

Such luxury to be a bystander!

Talking about being a bystander the pickets were out by the hospital roundabout yesterday- nurses, so women mainly- standing in a clump with placards. They want better pay and conditions and the government won't give it them.

We pipped our horn in support.

Of course we did.