Oh God, I Am One

Puritanical?

I was reading an article in the Observer Magazine on 'The New Puritans.' The term is used by the Future Foundation (monitor of social trends) to describe a growing band of people who aim to be socially and environmentally conscious. Fine, you think. All fine and good. But in the process, the New Puritans are becoming ever more critical of those who aren't as self disciplined as they are. New Puritans object to rampant consumerism, smoking, junk food, pesticides, SUV's, the widespread binge and debt culture, etc...

And I thought (with alarm), oh god, I am one! I have the power to annoy friends (and even strangers) with my transparent thoughts, my side glances. And yet I'm caught in the middle. When I see supermarket trolleys full of jumbo cola bottles, battery chickens, Mr Kipling's tarts etc...well, I don't even need to explain. Yet ten years ago I would have eaten most of the above. So why am I being such a mental dictator? There was this woman infront of me at the checkout and she was buying 'diet' everything - diet cola, diet white bread, low fat ready meals, weight watcher's cakes. And I wished she wasn't duped by less healthy foods. I wished she knew an easier way. I confess, there is a Gillian McKeith inside of me, fighting to make me unpopular.

But the supermarket in Partick is more friendly than Byres Road. People call you 'darlin' and 'love'. They are big on self disclosure (unlike me who blogs..). An old woman volunteered that had a sore breast. Another woman told me she was 'too auld tae carry a bag o' tatties up the close'. It's like a community centre or a doctor's waiting room. There were a couple of immigrant kids who seemed to have no English except for the word 'Hamburgers.' So they ran round the aisles yelling out for processed meat.

Okay, somebody stop me now?

-C

PS. friends keep asking me what blog stands for. T'is short for web log.