3 May 2020

You were going to be treated to a description of my day, travelling through the barricades (with permission, not in a Smokie and the Bandit sort of way) to travel to the south west for the day, firstly visiting my mother in law in hospital in Bunbury, then calling in on my sister and some of her kids, and then a visit for the first time in months to my mum in the nursing home – a strictly controlled but so gratefully received opportunity.

There were emotional highs and lows with people accepting what life is left available to them, people experiencing the sharp rollercoaster emotions of grief, tempered with the simple joys of young children, and others simply accepting what is in front of them, not totally aware of everything but aware of enough to be happy to see a familiar face. Even if it’s mine.

But instead of that, the blog number directed me to ignore all that and talk about the meaning of life.

Those erudite scholars amongst you will be aware of the significance of the number 42. If you aren’t among them, I’ll try to dumb it down for you.

In the classic novel “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”, a supercomputer by the name of Deep Thought was tasked with finding out what was the meaning of life. Very long story short, but the answer was 42.

Not many people think of my brain as if it were a supercomputer, but I think if you listed:

42 – happy times

42 – sad times

42 – times when someone has irritated you

42 – significant hugs

42 – times you sang or danced spontaneously

42 – times when you have missed someone desperately

42 – books, poems or songs that lifted you

42 – of your achievements

42 – of your failures

42 – times you were in awe of Mother Nature

42 – things that inspired you

42 – people who inspired you

….then maybe you’d work out the meaning of life yourself.