TiMe AnD LoNeLiNess - eLEaNOR riGby by DouGlas CoupLanD

"I wish modern science would invent a drug that causes time to feel much longer, the way it felt when you were a child. What a great drug. A year would feel like a year, not ten minutes. Your adulthood would feel long and full instead of like some out-of control carnival ride. Who would want a drug like this? Older people, I'd guess-people whose sense of passing time has hit the acceleration pedal.

And I guess they ought to invent a drug capable of the opposite effect. Again, there'd be no immediate sensation, but after a year of the drug you'd say, Wow! Has it been a year already?It feels just like yesterday. Who'd take that drug? Me when I'm lonely. And prisoners with life sentences."
Here's a third notion: what if you had to choose just one of these drugs? which one would you choose?
I would like to be able to choose either when I wanted to..e.g. I hate waiting so I speed up things... When you go on Holiday and it is over so quickly, I would slow it down to make it seem longer! :-D

I guess that alcohol is the closet thing we have to a drug that makes time fly. It makes time fly in the short term, and in the long term it obliterates memory-which is, of course, a way of erasing time!

The reason I love reading Douglas Coupland is because he always, without fail, makes you think of the world we live in. Eleanor Rigby is a story which concerns adult loneliness. An increasing issue in our society today. This is because, "The particular stresses of modern life tend to make people particularly vulnerable to loneliness. Changes in employment practice, a rising divorce rate, and the fact that people can more easily move away, have caused many to suffer the ache of loneliness. A considerable number of people in all age groups now live alone." (Mind 09)

I particularly remember how my Grandad was when my Grandma died. I ended up moving in with him for nearly 2 years before I went to university. I had only been gone 2 months when my mother was advised that he should go into sheltered accomodation. I felt awful but there was nothing I could do. He couldn't cope with being on his own. Even though I was barely in the house, he knew I would be there at some point during the day/night to talk to. The thought that there are people out there who don't talk to people for days on end makes me feel very sad indeed. The move to sheltered accomodation worked well. He had other grumpy old people to talk to.He lived there for nearly 5 years before passing away. I still miss the old git!! :-Dx