Print: Relentless / Reasons To Be Less Cheerful

Relentless, RTomens, 2019

'Dial down the happiness factor' I tell myself mooching about Town on Tuesday - but I don't use 'dial down' because it's the sort of thing they say on telly talking about Politics - I only think of it afterwards sat outside the cafe and decide to use it anyway, just to be 'on trend' terminology-wise (hur-hur). 

I'd been the the cafe, The Wine Cellar on Kentish Town Road where, I'm reluctant to say, you get the best sun in the morning (I don't want you all going there because there are only two tables outside...so...forget what I said, I'm lying, the coffee's crap and it's always in the shade) and greeted the man in my usual moderately cheery fashion which, I realise, is a damned sight cheerier than most who mope about this town ordering stuff in a slightly gruff manner (men) or plain ordinary (women) but I know why...

...they're just going about their daily lives so what the hell is there to be cheerful about whereas I'm on my day off - remember, don't be too cheerful to those for whom it's just another day serving me books/coffee/food - it might make them moodier, the 'What the hell has he got to be cheerful about?!' contrast between them and me.

In the 70s I worked in a factory with a bloke and he'd be cheerful every bloody day! 'Ignorance is bliss' I told myself, although what I was so knowledgeable about I don't know (Gregory Isaacs albums?). I was miserable every day being a couple of years into what I saw as my life sentence in The Factory, all chewed up inside about failing (already!) and I wasn't yet 20. 

I'm even mindful of being 'too cheerful' on Facebook. Huh! Daft, innit? But I know that most friends are just putting up with another day at Work or have their problems (as if I have none) and they don't want be shoving Cheerfulness in their faces as they scroll. Who does? Lots of people. What's wrong with it? I'm trying to tell you what could be wrong with it....

...but then you've got to be yourself, haven't you? No, not when engaging with social media! Be anything but yourself! I tell you, speak your mind on some subjects and feel the encroaching absence of responses to your posts from 'friends' who've decided you are not 'on their side'. So I reckon. I've not tested the theory fully. I'm not combat ready and don't want the hassle of pointless verbal scrap online.

Thanks for having a look. The image is a print I made yesterday. A photo of the print, actually. TTFN