Last updated 20:40, Thursday, 17 July 2008

WE HAVE so many time and labour-saving devices nowadays, but can someone please tell me why we no longer have time to do anything?

I was at Maryport carnival on Saturday. It was a great event but, like all the carnivals in our area now, there were not the same huge number of floats that there once were, and the hard-working team that makes the day a success was down to a dwindling few.

Every year now, before almost every carnival, this paper carries stories about worried chairmen and secretaries warning that their carnivals may have to be cancelled because of lack of funds and support.

On carnival day itself, the crowds turn out in their hundreds and thousands, but apparently nobody has the time to help on the day, to prepare a float or to get involved as anything more than a spectator.

I have a special vantage point at Maryport carnival. My office is just doors down from the local Pensioners’ Club. Chairs are set out for the elderly on carnival day - and I have managed to wangle one for myself. So I sit in comfort, watch the parade pass by and listen to the comments of people, some of whom have been watching carnivals for far more years than I have been alive.

It was they who brought up the subject of people being too busy now to get involved.

But I started to think about their lives. In their childhoods, when the carnivals were huge, people were, of necessity, a lot busier than today.

We have automatic washing machines. They had to fire up the copper for hot water, wash by hand or in the old fashioned machines with the wringers. We have driers. All their washing had to be hung out.

We have microwaves and ovens that you can pre-set and fat-free grills and steamers and slow cookers. They had stoves that had to be lit and kept at constant temperatures. There were no frozen foods or convenience meals that could be popped into the microwave.

We have computers. We can order everything online including our weekly groceries, if we want. We have instant communication. We don’t need to write letters anymore. We have phones and email.

We have fast cars to get us where we want and shops that are open seven days a week if we haven’t taken the online option. We are supposed to work eight-hour days and five-day weeks. I know that doesn’t always happen but it is the norm. We also have regular holidays.

So, with all this time saved, why do we have no time?

Maybe it is because everyone in the world is like me. If I have 10 stories to write an hour before deadline, I will write those 10 stories and have them finished in time. If I have 10 stories to write and a week to do them, it will take me a week!

With all this time we have to waste, we waste it. We fill in every space.

But there is a difference between us and the previous generations. They had so much to do - the equivalent of 10 stories in an hour. But they still made time to be part of their community. They wanted to know their neighbours, to attend dances, to be involved with carnivals.

There isn’t that sense of community anymore.

I think that is because the world has changed so much that it is sometimes easier to confine our relationships to emails.

We have heard recently that experts are concerned that the next generation of children are being overprotected. We live in a climate of fear. We are afraid that if we have a bouncy castle in our backyard and someone is hurt we will be sued. We are afraid that if we take pictures in public we will be accused of being perverts. We are afraid that if a stranger talks to our child he is a paedophile. We are afraid that if we hang up flags we will not be able to meet the cost of all the health and safety initiatives that will be required beforehand.

I think that before next year we should all go and join a carnival committee or encourage our children to become carnival kings and queens.

Before next year we should do something to be part of our community. We should put aside our fears and our worries and do something that allows our kids to be kids again. Let them have some fun and some adventure.

And if you lot all do that, then I’ll write about it in our paper!