Safety Net

Safety Net ©

By Michael Casey

As I speak the England team are no doubt drowning their sorrows, they just got beat by Iceland, and I don’t mean the frozen food company, maybe some diehard football fans will boycott their shop. If only the England team had put more balls in the back of the net, though Clive on the late night news did mention the fact that the whole of Europe may be rejoicing after the Euro Vote. England the UK is not very popular right now.

This is just to put everything in context, tonight is Monday 27^th June 2016, History is happening all over the place. When your world is crashing down you need a Safety Net, something to cheer you up, I’m listening to Baker Street from the City to City album of Gerry Rafferty. Music is my Safety Net, or rather my companion or even lover, I should stop playing the Barry White album so much.

A Safety Net does reassure us, it’s our rope and harness as we abseil off a building, or when we are out of our depth then a safety net is of enormous benefit. A metaphoric safety net more than anything else, I have several, though my safety nets don’t even know that they are so important to me. I chat with the Lolly Pop Man, this is what we call the crossing supervisor outside schools here in England.

He holds a giant stick like a giant lolly pop so as to stop traffic. Anyways I stop and chat and talk and exchange a joke or two, he is a constant in my day, some days I may have no pain, but the next I’m in tremendous pain, so having a joke does take your mind off the pain. He’s also had a bypass so we have something in common.

You may come home and talk to your mum and tell her all your woes, she may be deaf but still she is so important to you, she is listening even if she cannot even hear you. Mum is a lightning rod she earths you and protects you from all evil, or from the build-up of too much stress. If you don’t have a mum or dad or a grannie or any family member to talk to then you can always go to a café and befriend a little old lady, buy her a cup of tea, lie and say you won a tenner on the lottery and could she share a tea and cake with you. By this subterfuge you can offload your stress and maybe make a friend.

Talking is a safety net, and if you cannot find a real person to talk to then just kidnap your neighbour’s cat and give it milk, a cat will listen to anybody for a bowl of milk. If you cannot find a cat then you can always talk to a photo, or just talk to the wall like in the play Shirley Valentine.

Safety nets are needed and they do work. You may go for a swim or a walk in the woods or visit a church and talk to God or just curse at him. God doesn’t mind curses, at least you are talking to him, and that’s always a good beginning. Or it could be like the Simon and Garfunkel song the Boxer, I was so lonely I took some comfort there. Whatever is your Safety Net so long as you have one then you will avoid being stressed out and getting into something bad to alleviate your stress. You don’t want to start on Class As when all you need to do is take a Class in pottery, or flower arranging.  

Support structure is a fancy term  for safety net, the old families which had 3 generations living together or close together was a spiders web of love supporting each other. Now we have more toys and things but we can miss the cheapest and most vital of things, a family. Form a Christian Family if you want a bit of Peace in your Life said Padre Pio. It can be a family of any faith or none, but Family is the greatest safety net of all, despite any family bickering, because it’s much better than walking the tightrope of life all alone.