Indulging in a Fantasy World

I'm sure I've said this before but I shall indulge myself by repeating it: one of the great things about retirement is that you can do what you want, when you want. So today, faced with a chilly day with that long-standing dampness underfoot, Mister E and I decided to visit the cinema again.

We had half expected it to be overcrowded with representatives from the great retired class but either the weather or film choice had put them off. It was a stark contrast to B&Q yesterday where the poor chap supervising the self check-outs was clearly having a miserable time dealing with the older generation and their lack of prowess at scanning their purchases on the weekly over 60's discount day.

It was a striking difference too to a few weeks ago when I took my mother to see Dame Maggie Smith as The Lady in the Van. That day the cinema was filled with plenty of people who could put the Lady's wrinkles and cough to shame.

On reflection, therefore, it was most likely our movie option that found us sitting in a small studio with only eight other people. In fact one left after thirty minutes leaving only nine of us to follow the trail of The Revenant as he crawled his way through a bleak environment amidst a hostile winter to seek his revenge. 

Perhaps we become more inured as we get older, but for me the effect and genre of the film was reminiscent of some of the better black and white Westerns that were constantly on television when I was a child. Whilst I have sympathy for the lady who left the screening, the blood and guts which spilled out onto the screen did not exceed my capacity for revulsion and instead I delighted in both the harsh beauty of the landscape and the brutality of the tale. One cannot help but admire the fortitude of those who expanded western frontiers in by-gone centuries whilst being horrified at the wanton disregard they paid to the rights of the indigenous people. 

We certainly enjoy a pampered life in the UK these days and, although there is nothing better than to enter a fantasy world for a couple of hours on a cold February afternoon, retirement for me is certainly not the time in my life when, despite seeking simplification, I want to retreat to a life in the back of beyond with no home comforts. My days of fighting grizzly bears, sleeping in the open and shoot-outs are well and truly behind me, if indeed they ever existed. How wonderful though to have big open landscapes and night skies almost to yourself, to hunt and catch your own food (unfortunately for the most part it was not cooked), and to sit round a fire with others and not watch someone texting. This afternoon I found it all at the cinema.