Hiding In My Room

Jeremy Turk, Isle of Wight U3A Creative Writing Group

Hiding in my room, turning off the light, two things occur to me. How dark it is. And how quiet. A far cry from Southeast London. So noisy, grimy and loud, with all night streetlamps illuminating the peripheries of the bedroom curtains. Suburbia, somewhere in between. Grew up there. Nice, manicured parks. Genteel middle-class existence. Mandatory family dog – a Jack Russell Terrier.

There was a work colleague who edited a literary magazine as well as being a paediatrician in his day job. Two existences. He reminded us repeatedly that he was an anarchist. “Any efforts at organization of society are inevitably detrimental and worse than no organization at all” he said. Truth be told his life was pretty organized. As was his outstanding clinical practice.

I return to London time to time. Still exciting but increasingly frenetic, loud, grimy, bright, stressful, exhausting. That quote about rivers and stepping or not in them. Studied it in my online philosophy course. Took a while to realise “idealism” was to do with ideas and thinking as opposed to “empiricism”, application of scientific method. The tutor said philosophy is about asking the big questions.

Did some modern art appreciation courses as well. I knew I liked modern art (my father loved antiques and collected them passionately) but wasn’t sure why. Helped keep me going through my last decade of almost full-time employment. Still work two days a week – not ready for full time retirement yet.

Turning off the light, two things occur to me.