Saturday Night, Ukraine And Kurt Vonnegut Jnr…

Image from independentaustralia.net

Collingwood lost by a point today…

I put that out there in terms of context.

Like many supporters, I should have liked them to have won but – in the scheme of things – we won’t be looking for the bodies in mass graves. The only torture was the fact that there was some hope in the dying minute…

If I sound like I’m being flippant, I’m not. While the Ukrainian people pull bodies out of mass graves, the idea that anyone should be upset by a Collingwood loss seems a wee bit first world problem.

Tragedy for people is always relative. I mean, look at the British people they’re devastated by the loss of a monarch who’s reigned for nearly a hundred years… On an irrelevant point, someone said that Elizabeth would have had to go back to Queen Victoria to find a female role model as a monarch… A mere fifty years! Charles had to go back seventy to find a male role model…

Anyway, I’m re-reading Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” after…

God, after forty years…

In my late twenties, I was always confused by how little he seemed to value love. It took me some time to understand that love is not as good as it’s cracked up to be…

Yeah, sure. It’s great, sometimes. It’s like having a mother. Most times better than not, but sometimes, someone will have a story and you’ll go, “YOUR MOTHER DID WHAT?”

Anyway, I always found Vonnegut to be a bit… I don’t know, calm. And I felt that we should all be passionate and angry and…

He once wrote, “A little less love, a bit more common decency…”

And I thought that I wanted passion and anger and that was the only way to change the world and I remembered the sixties and I went and got out old poetry books and I remembered some of my poetry and I wonder if it’s in a box somewhere and I wondered if I’d had as much opportunity as T.S. whether…

I’d have written something like “A little less love, a bit more common decency…”

And I had a lot to say, but Collingwood lost by a point and I don’t know what to say because…

Ah, I now understand.

Good luck in the Grand Final.

 

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About Rossleigh 1447 Articles
Rossleigh is a writer, director and teacher. As a writer, his plays include “The Charles Manson Variety Hour”, “Pastiche”, “Snap!”, “That’s Me In The Distance”, “48 Hours (without Eddie Murphy)”, and “A King of Infinite Space”. His acting credits include “Pinor Noir Noir” for “Short and Sweet” and carrying the coffin in “The Slap”. His ten minutes play, “Y” won the 2013 Crash Test Drama Final.

9 Comments

  1. Carol and I were on the edge of our seats, Ross, willing them on, hoping for the late goal that never came.

    But no matter who won, I wanted the victorious team to kick Geelong off the park next week.

  2. Rossleigh, what are you talking about the magpies won by 11 goals.
    At the other match, gee the long and short of it is predetermined that the swans will win the premiership and the Ukraine will win the war.
    As for standing on the edge it leaves everything behind..

  3. Rossleigh, I hugely appreciate all your pieces. They are very well done. Apologies if I do not say so often enough.
    However, the photo of the infamous Andrew Dolt on the cover of the Herald Sun, is confusing, to say the least. How does it fit into your article if at all? Apologies once again, if I am too dense to get the connection.

  4. leefe, there’s always an upside when Collingwood loses: it pisses off Eddie McGuire.

    I’ve despised the man ever since he stopped my team (Port Adelaide) from wearing our traditional black and white jumpers in our home games against the Adelaide Crows.

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