17 March, 2004

I remember a particular day at primary school, sometime in the early 80s when I was about 8 or so and the teacher was reading to us a story about nuclear war. I can’t remember the actual story but I do remember that every one of the kids was scared crapless. Afterwards during a discussion it was revealed that the single biggest fear for us all was dying in a nuclear war…not falling out of a tree, being run over by a drunk driver or being maimed by marauding hippopotamus (we were 8 okay). This fear was not the direct result of hearing the story but was already ingrained…we honestly believed that it was possible and entirely likely that either the Americans or Russians were going to kill us all by firing nuclear missiles at each other.

I am not sure why this memory was triggered recently but the World is starting to feel the same as it did then: uncertain, unfriendly and dangerous. The US, so long our supposed ally, are now acting like a crazy older cousin with a penchant for violence (the one everyone looks at thinking “dodgey bugger” and quietly ignores until he goes psycho again), nutters are running around blowing up buildings, trains and anything else they associate with their perception of evil, and the rest of us are sitting on the floor listening to the teacher quietly tell us indirectly that we are all going to die. Nice.

My time at the nursery has come to an end. My one day a week was becoming somewhat unworkable so we called it quits, said our farewells and smiled happily. It was a nice period of time, though hard work and I appreciate the time my temporary employer put in to try and make it work. It will be missed though I imagine my garden will now prosper. A strange feeling of resignation has settled in.