My song today is ‘I Guess That’s Why They Call it the Blues’. This song was recorded by Elton John, with music by John and Davey Johnstone and lyrics by Bernie Taupin. It is the first single from Elton John's hugely successful 17th studio album ‘Too Low for Zero’. In the United States, it became one of Elton John's biggest hits of the 1980s, holding at Number 2 for four weeks on the ‘Adult Contemporary’ chart, and reaching Number 4 on the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ chart.
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From the many things medically I have had happened to me throughout my life to press, the one thing I have been blessed with is never personally experiencing ‘depression’ or ‘the blues’, but I have known the condition in many other people close to me.
My first wife suffered badly from post-natal depression: I have worked with dozens of people throughout my career as a Probation Officer and Relaxation Training Instructor who was plagued with depression and blue moods: I have had family members suffer from depression, and my dear brother-in-law suffered from the illness immediately prior to his recent death with no one close to him being able to get him any substantive help. In fact, it would not be inaccurate to say that ‘mental health’ has remained the Cinderella of the N.H.S. ever since it came into being. Since this country has been blighted by the pandemic virus Covid-19 over the past year, the glaring discrepancy that exists between the importance of and access to physical health or mental health has never been as apparent.
The physiological effects of lockdown within the country for over a three-month period included being confined to our homes 24/7: being unable to work as normal: being unable to travel by bus, rail or any public transport unless we sat six seats apart from the next passenger and made ourselves look like masked bank robbers whose getaway car had broken down on our way, forcing us to travel by bus: being unable to have a quiet drink in the local pub with friends: being unable by law to socialise with our immediate family, our parents, our siblings, our neighbours and friends (unless our name was Dominic Cummings): being banned from even visiting our old parents in their Residential Home, or holding their hand as they lay dying in hospital, or even attending their funeral service the day they were buried: being unable to have our children educated in their schools and colleges: being unable to see and socialise with our family, friends and neighbours: being unable to get married: being unable to see a doctor face-to-face, or a dentist, or be admitted to hospital for any operation (potentially terminal or otherwise) which was not Covid-19 related.
We have had to endure oppressive restrictions on our movements and general behaviour, along with curbs on all manner of our individual freedom which has never been previously known, even in wartime! Our world will never be the same again, and each of our lives has been changed in ways that cannot be undone. Our freedom has been exchanged and fed with fear, our liberty to roam swapped with limitation of movement, and our national traditions and daily customs have been discarded in favour of daily diktats delivered by an autocratic Government of the day with the tendency to abandon any diktat no sooner than it has been publicly announced, and change its mind as often as a child in a sweetshop deciding which treat to spend their money on.
While the Prime Minister announces a war on fatty foods and obesity, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is encouraging all and sundry to eat out at McDonald's and every other food establishment at a heavily subsidised cost, ensuring that we not only fill our stomachs but also have the economic incentive to stuff a pudding down us as well, where previously the extra cost of ordering seconds would have persuaded many of us to stop filling our fat faces after the main course.
And, for the first time in a century, working from home by millions of people is being done more efficiently and at much less cost and stress to the worker(as well as resulting in the use of fewer vehicles and public transport on our roads, and thereby enabling pedestrians to breathe more clearly in a much purified and smoke-free atmosphere). Yet, what is our Government’s considered response to this unintended bonus of having a greener planet?
All office workers are being urged to return to their city workplaces in their droves. Government policy ignores any increased health risks and is not environmentally worried about the return to slow-moving congested traffic in our city centres. Neither has the Government any concern that ‘the change back’ will mean up to an extra four-hours daily commute (travelling on overcrowded trains where standing instead of sitting is the norm, and ensuring that worker’s children are in bed again by the time dad gets back home for his supper and will have to wait until the weekend before they see his fatherly face again).
And what are we supposed to be doing all this for, one might ask? So that more money can be spent by city workers buying that expensive cup of coffee to be quaffed on the hoof as one hurries to work, and being able to devour that fatty sandwich which costs as much as one month’s subscription to the local fitness club. In short, anything and everything is thrown into the mangle to get the country’s economy straightened out and back on its feet. Never has there been a truer saying than “What the Gods seek to destroy, it first makes mad!”
It would not surprise me in the least if, in a future ‘Great Britain’, there are twice as many hospitals needed for the treatment and care of mental health patients as there are traditional hospitals required for the treatment of physical injuries and general illnesses.
And, if for one moment anyone thinks that healing a broken heart, or mending a broken marriage, or restoring whole a broken family unit is less costly, easier, and swifter to achieve than mending a broken arm or a leg, or God forbid, even eradicating a body cancer, is living in cloud cuckoo land. So believe the opposite if you must, but don’t try to convince me; instead, tell it to the birds!
Love and peace Bill xxx