<< Crazy Season !! >>

So the weekend is here and I'm all charged up with enthusiasm, ready to make my next lesson. For this particular video I'm going to fill in the gap that was left by the replacement of lesson 10. The original lesson ten was about fear, but I was never really happy with the quality of that particular video, so recently I remade it as a later lesson and the original was deleted, thus leaving an empty space in my lesson list. It was always my intention to replace it with a new lesson. So what should be lesson 48, will in fact be lesson 10. (Does that make sense?)

I really love this time of year because the weather becomes milder and the first wisps of Spring dance merrily around and of course the nights become shorter. If I was honest then I would have to say that early Spring is my favourite time of year. The feeling of transition from the cold, dull Winter days to the bright and blowy Spring ones literally puts a 'spring' in my step.

Of course along with Spring comes the crazy season, when people behave in the most peculiar way. I think it is a kind of release from the short days and long bitter nights of Winter, or perhaps it is just that there are a lot of crazy people out there, but there can be no doubt that this time of year makes many people go doo-lally!

From my recent visits to the local shopping centre, there certainly seems to be an air of madness about, as people swarm in to the shops looking for the bargains and then walking proudly out, clutching their newly purchased possessions, all tucked away inside glaringly branded plastic carrier bags. This really does (not) seem like the behaviour of a nation in the grips of a recession. If things are so bad, then why are we still spending like there is no tomorrow? I love watching people and there is no better place for doing this than in shopping malls. I'm always struck by the blank and vacant expressions on the faces of the shoppers as they wind their way around from shop to shop, making a mental note as they walk along, of what to buy next and how much they can save, thanks to the misfortunes of other people.

Of course I don't blame them, as we are being encouraged to carry on as if nothing is happening. The message from the people in power is, 'keep on shopping, inject your cash back into the economy as fast as you can!'. This is all very well and good, but there is one small problem. Most of us are already deep in debt with our mortgages and credit cards, so just how are we supposed to do this? Yes you have guessed it...Borrow more money! This is like giving a child who just smashed your window a big pile of bricks and leading him to your greenhouse!

Maybe it really is because of the arrival of Spring and the general feeling of craziness that tends to go with it, or maybe it's because we are all blindly following the same behaviour that got us all into this mess in the first place. I really want us all to learn our lesson, but sadly it seems that may never happen. The desire for those shiny things and the chance to make another person jealous of us is a very strong one and is not likely to go away soon.

(Misterduncan) .....................................................