TO-DO LIST FOR THE 21st CENTURY

I love to make lists and tick them off as completed when the time comes

I have always made lists. My shopping list is a permanent small note book close to my electric kettle. I write down anything that runs out because I cannot rely on my memory. I get great satisfaction from ripping the lists out of my note book, screwing them up and dropping them into my recycling bin when they have been fulfilled.

When I was younger and in business, I always had ‘to-do’ lists on my desk and post-it notes stuck to my door or wall. At home I had to-do lists of domestic chores that required my attention. I have always kept lists of books I want to read, packing lists for holidays, things I wanted to study and lists of phone numbers I might need at the drop of a hat. Nowadays I have lists of passwords and websites!

I have never written a to-do list of all the issues that need fixing globally. To be honest the idea has only just occurred to me and, of course, as soon as it formed in my mind, it rose to the top of my personal ‘to-do’ list and required immediate implementation.

Here we go, friends! 😉 In no specific order:

1) Completely end war.

This one has been a lifelong ambition. I was born in 1952 and until 1957 I played in the craters left by the Blitz of London. I thought the whole world was full of bomb sites because my parents told me there had been a ‘World War’. I got Scarlet Fever from playing in the filth at the bottom of those craters and, apparently, I could have died. I never want any child to have to suffer sickness because of war. I do not understand the need for war and, no matter how long I live, I will never understand it.

I know who does love war though…. click the green words to find out!

2) Clean up the atmosphere.

Now I know that anyone born since the turn of this century has no idea what a really natural sky looks like. They have no memories of the intensely blue skies we had during my youth. They look up and say, “What a lovely day!” but I see a pale shade of blue or a whitened hazy horizon and I know that is not natural. I thank

Jim Lee @ClimateViewer

for teaching me why my skies are so fake and so deadly for our health and that of every living thing.

3) Make ALL food organic!

I realise that I am an old woman but truly, kiddos, when I was a child, all food was organic. It did not require labelling and it was not wrapped in plastic. We shopped at markets and local grocer stores. We had separate shops for just about everything! I used to love popping into all the shops on our High Street. Each one smelled different, depending on the items for sale. I loved the antique bric-a-brac shop best. The butcher’s shop least. I was spoiled by the man in the sweet shop and adored by the ladies on the vegetable stalls in the market.

We had big shopping baskets made from string or wicker and everything was carefully wrapped in greaseproof or brown paper. Nothing was poisoned with glyphosate or anything that might rob the food of its nutrition. People still grew a lot of food on their garden allotments, so we knew it was going to taste the best because, after WW2, horticultural skills were well developed and shared in long detailed conversations over garden fences. Gavin Mounsey writes a fantastic Substack newsletter about this!

4) Revive Herbal Medicine!

When I was a child, the NHS was a new thing and using it was considered unnecessary or even rude by my grandparents. Visiting the doctor was only ever a last resort. Grannie knew best and could cure whatever ailed you. Children were given regular doses of cod liver oil, castor oil, syrup of figs, rosehip syrup and numerous herbal preparations for coughs and colds. We slavered Vick’s VapoRub on our chests and breathed in the heady fumes of camphor, menthol, spirits of turpentine, oil of eucalyptus, cedarwood oil, nutmeg oil, and thymol. I figured that the idea was to stink us back to health! We used cotton hankies and those were often doused with some of the above known stink-bombs.

We went to school whether we were sniffling or not. Missing school was reserved for extreme fevers associated with the regular childhood illnesses like measles, chicken pox or mumps. If any friend had one of those illnesses we were sent to visit them with presents and hand-made get-well-cards. We were expected to be grateful for our exposure to these illnesses which grannie said made us stronger. Children who broke their bones were still expected to attend school. But in those days we actually learned useful things!

5) Teach children useful skills

Most toddlers can be taught to count, read and write before they get to school age. Parents or grandparents should have done that at home. Once they arrive at an organised education establishment they are ready to learn other skills. By the time I was five years old I was learning to cook, clean, sew, knit, crochet, macramé, garden, preserve food, make medicines, draw and write poetry. I was a card sharp and I knew the basics of palmistry and tarot.

All this was learned from my grandmother while my mum was working. I made my dolly’s clothes and when I walked into school for the first time I was wearing a bolero suit in black felted woollen cloth that I had hand stitched. I wore that suit until it became too small for me and I went on to make all my clothes. When I was a young mum, I made a good living working from home, dressmaking bespoke designed wedding dresses and outfits for a number of clients.

Boys I knew were fixing their bikes, learning woodwork with their dads and developing muscle strength, co-ordination and resilience by playing football in the streets. Do you see kids playing in the streets these days? No. They have been terrorised by parental fears and are indoors being babysat by electronic devices which teach them how to play Fortnite. Wow. Speedy thumbs is the new skill? Really? Will these weak specimens be only valuable as drone operators in the future? Which brings me neatly to -

6) End unnatural atmospheric electro-magnetic radiation!

This one really rattles my cage. The deliberate irresponsible use of wireless telecommunications is sickening and murdering all living things. There is absolutely no excuse for it. We have fibre optics don’t we? Why do we need a personal communicator on us at all times? It may amaze you youngsters to know that all previous generations survived very well without these devices! Our mums did not monitor our every movement and as long as we were home for dinner and before the street lights came on, all was well.

Businesses were conducted in person or over the telephone, the landline telephone with a cable to a wall socket, kids…. remember those?

I have waxed lyrical about the vagaries of EMFs and 5G in particular so I won’t repeat myself on that subject here. You know where to look for those articles by now.

7) Encourage entrepreneurial ambitions!

I ran my first business without the use of a phone from the age of EIGHT. It was 1960, I had a basket full of shoe cleaning equipment and I went door-to-door every Saturday morning. My regular customers would leave their work shoes on their doorsteps or in a porchway. I would sit on the floor and polish them for a shilling a pair. Some customers would leave their shillings in the shoes so I did not have to wake them up when they were sleeping in late.

My dad taught me to do bought and sales ledger book-keeping. I learned how to calculate my profit and he would examine my books, like an auditor at dinner time each Saturday. He advised me to save at least 10% of my profit in a Post Office account, which I did and continued to do with everything I earned from that day to this. By the time I was 19 years old I had saved the deposit on a house! Why aren’t young people encouraged to self support like this?

Well, you know I could go on putting the world to rights! Those are my top seven topics.

What would you like to put right in this crazy world? Please tell me in comments!

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ONWARDS!
xx