Building A Yellow Submarine
For Christmas this year, I was gifted a Lego Yellow Submarine Kit by my daughter. I opened the box to discover hundreds upon hundrds of tiny pieces alongside the slim building blocks. The challenge was intricate and immense. In my childhood, i was a Subbuteo Football Game fanatic; ready assembled and on the pitch you go. No Meccano kid me! So a major challenge lay before me. A beautiful present; My daughter. My four best friends and the music that has informed me in every experience of existence. A work of love ensued.
As my study turned into a building yard, then my booky mind began to realise that purpose is all. That when we embark on a project of love then we are fulfilled. I thought back to my time working in Occupational Therapy and how so often the way to reach into a person within breakdown was to engage them into a task that would focus their mind.
My reward from this whole experience was to value the little building blocks of life. Of course, it could be other pursuits. Gardening. Pursuing a walking map in action. Decorating. The main point is that it is active. Turning off the mind with tv, radio, and the interactive social media is a good thing. Though pursuits of love offline like reading, writing, music and drama have their places too.
To summarise, then I feel that balance is all in life. There are many options day-to-day for us all now in terms of active and passive outlets. A healthy mind can engage with social media, though to remain healthy it must have real, human offline pursuits too.
Alan Ewing, MSc, BA Hons, Cert HE
