A somewhat peculiar beginning...

2nd of January of 2012, Monday. New week, new month, new year. This beginning has not been what one usually dreams of. To start with all last month my mother has been suffering from different ailments, among them a rather uncomfortable atopic dermatitis. Then my youngest son caught a cold and has been coughing since the beginning of the school vacations and, of course, he passed the cough to everybody else in the house.

So, I was sick to wave goodbye to 2011 and sick to welcome 2012. I manage to cook a nice New Year’s dinner and next day’s lunch. Today I got up feeling awful but I gather some strength to go out in the afternoon.

The centre of Madrid was crowded with people shopping for Epiphany presents. As I was also in the same quest I ventured into El Corte Inglés. Now I had to go to the 7^th floor so I found an escalator. I was minding my own business musing about the amount of people, the difficulty in finding what I am looking for when I notice that there is a couple in front of me and the guy is shamelessly and noticeably patting the girls bottom under her mini skirt in the sight of everyone around. She does not complain.

I might seem old fashioned but I think we have lost all sense of propriety and decency. There are things one should only do in private or keep for quieter places. I am afraid that TV and modern media is doing more harm that it might seem at first sight. Now everyone believes that has freedom to do whatever they want because they see it on TV any time during the day, and people who do it become very popular and wealthy just by showing their intimacy to whoever wants to watch it. The result is no sense of decency or propriety, the wrong idea that everybody has rights and unlimited freedom and no duties. That sensible belief that one’s freedom ends where somebody else’s freedom begins is long gone and forgotten. So I was to censure someone’s attitude or behavior I would more than probably find myself in the awkward position of being answered to mind my own business or not to look if I don’t like what I see. That goes also for people who throw garbage in the street, put their feet on other seats in public transport, drive like nuts, etc.

So this has been a pretty unconventional beginning of a year…