Looking Back - Reasons To Be Cheerful

I mentioned the upset created by the less than temperate language of the comedian Frankie Boyle in a post earlier this month. One of the Sunday papers, at the time of the contretemps, featured a couple of columns on the topic, one speaking for our outspoken friend and his right to tell it as he saw it and another more wary of his way of upsetting all and sundry. Both made worthy points and I reckon the result of their little debate was an honourable draw with some useful light shed on the very real issues involved.

But one tiny detail of one column, the one taking Mr Boyle's side, stuck in my mind as an example of someone very clever getting something absolutely wrong. The columnist was giving some telling examples of our tendency not to speak truly and pointing out the need for voices that punctured our pretences. Well said. Except that one of the examples was that of the fake cheeriness encountered in homes for the aged. (Not the exact words, but close enough.) Now at that time I'd just come from one such establishment, the one with Mum in it, and I can tell you that there's nothing fake about the cheeriness. Of course, it's all a pretence, but that doesn't make it fake. It's an act of supreme grace and understanding; making the impossible, dignity in the face of absolute indignity, possible - indeed, real.

Mum will soon be moving to what is likely to be her final home, in this world at least, a nursing home in Hyde, close to where she used to live. If she meets with the same level of care, attention and fake cheeriness she has encountered in her two residences since last September we'll be more than pleased.

I think the one thing people like Frankie Boyle aren't equipped to deal with is the manifestation of real goodness in others.