15/05/2018
How to preserve the heart of society?
Take life into your own hands
Branko Rosić
Deputy Editor-in-Chief of ‘Nedeljnik’ Magazine
Take life into your own hands
On Saturday I freaked out when I learnt that famous Sir Alex Ferguson, the legendary coach of Manchester United, was rushed to hospital over a brain haemorrhage.
I was at the wedding party when I read the news on my phone. I had recollections of the event that happened two, three months ago when the Manchester United delegation was visiting Belgrade and when I had a chat with one of the team members. At one point he told me: ’Sir Alex isn’t red on the outside only.’
The English have those great word combinations which leave you doubting. I knew that the ’redness’ of Alex Ferguson referred to the political attitude and not the consequences of his (probable) love for whiskey. On Saturday night this line came to my mind again and I thought that Sir Alex Ferguson could have been red for high blood pressure all these years. Manchester United + political affinities = redness. What about redness due to high blood pressure? It is also possible now that we know that he suffered brain haemorrhage and that he was in intensive care in some of the Manchester hospitals.
Late that Saturday night, after I got home from the wedding party I watched different video clips with Alex Ferguson. I watched his entire imperial and triumphal quest to eternity. The eternity in which he had been engraved long ago. Then there is that famous intro of matches held on the Old Trafford, home of Manchester United, when on his way out of the tunnel, he meets a giant spongy red devil mascot (a club worker dressed as a mascot or a volunteer?), shakes hands with it and goes to the coach’s bench.
You are probably wandering why I am writing about Alex Ferguson, because this is a blog and not a page of a sports magazine. But, Sir Alex and his Saturday brain haemorrhage made me think about death, about what we all should do before the heaven accountants come and make the inventory of successes and failures. If, God forbid, heaven accountants visit the legendary Ferguson, such an inventory will be long because he managed to achieve quite a lot in his life.
But how can we, who unlike the ’red Scot’ will never be champions, could prolong making of this final balance sheet? His brain haemorrhage made me think about how both successful and unsuccessful ones end up in the same situation when such misfortunes are in question. How to keep the heart of the society in Serbia where the society has been treated as a commodity since before I can remember?
Because of Alex Ferguson and because of warnings during the campaign against the high blood pressure, I have decided to change things. In a recap, I have decided that August should not be the only time for makeup exams. I have decided to make it an ongoing thing. What needs to be fixed both in me and in society? I have decided that there is no more giving in to stupidities. I am switching to general saving of my time. I don’t want to watch the news on a TV anymore, I will do it only as much as I need it for my work. I want to spend every moment on hedonism, on myself, on my family, friends... I don’t care who said what and why. I know that nobody can change our life but ourselves.
I realized that stories about our return to nature are not the claptrap. Use every opportunity to travel. At least to the areas on the outskirts of the city where the last zone of the city transportation ends and turns into pure nature. You do not need a lot of money to enjoy the trees where all political stories are excess baggage and foolishness, where senses are padded with the sound of nature, where you get to sleep listening to the birds, instead of taking anxiolytics.
Mind your own business. This is the country where you are trained by the media to follow the destinies of others. When everything is stripped naked in that way, all these models that we watch in the media should make us feel stronger because we are not in the shoes of the unfortunate killed singer or beaten starlet. Don’t participate in the exhibition of unhappy destinies that are displayed to us by the media on a daily basis in an attempt to assure us that we are lucky enough to be alive and not in their shoes.
Take control of your life. Because when the heaven accounts come to pay you a visit, you will not have anything to boast of, except that you wasted your life on rubbish. I wish Sir Alex Ferguson all the best and wish him a long life, although he already has more than rich life inventory. I wish him a fast recovery in Manchester, at the hospital made of red bricks, as everything else is red in this city - bricks and the most popular football club and Sir Alex Ferguson.
AUTHOR
Branko Rosić
Deputy Editor-in-Chief of ‘Nedeljnik’ Magazine