Spring Cleaning

It may be April and I’ve still got my Michelin man grey winter jacket out, the one that was designed for someone whose arms get colder than the rest of their body. BUT spring is in the air. The days are longer now. The sun sets around 7:30 PM and it's already bright outside when I wake up in the mornings.

Some of the grumpy bare trees are slowly sprouting new buds – pale green buds that make one wonder what’s going to magically unfurl one day – leaves or flowers? Pink or yellow? Then there are the pale pink and white blossom trees that make you think you’re in a beautiful painting, a romantic film with no twists to the plot and just sweet uncomplicated love. The whisper-soft petals sprinkle the green grass below or waft in a slow drizzle if the breeze blows, and every time I see them my heart flutters and peace descends.

The daffodils with their bright yellow duck beaks, the tulips in shop windows and Instagram squares – it is easier to be happier in Spring.  Provided you’re not allergic to pollen.

People though will always find a reason to whinge (new word I’ve picked up in England – quite like it).  If it’s raining, we’ll complain about getting wet, and if the temperature picks up, we’ll start sweltering (actually, being from Karachi I find it quite hard to swelter in England. People here start panting and turning into beetroots at 20 degrees and 25 degrees is a heat wave, which is incidentally also the temperature at which I can toss away my jacket and remind myself what my toes look like.)

Something somewhere at all times is going wrong – running out of peanut butter, laundry piling up, a micromanaging boss or one that sleeps through meeting reminders, rain on a holiday, family living too far, family living too close, being a second-class citizen in a foreign country, gas shortages in your home country.  Life is pretty imperfect, I guess.

Then there is our other less-than-endearing human trait of criticizing. Criticizing is like the evil older sister of whining. Today’s world is a constant seesawing of critics yelling at other critics. There is the ‘Politically Correct’ camp (as dubbed by the other side, of course.  A good example of how regular words can be turned into derogatory name-calling just by changing the intention and situation.  You can call me a Paki in Pakistan and I’ll tip my green peak cap at you, but if someone called me that in England, I’d probably feel less than tickled despite the fact that I am indeed a Paki.)

Back to topic though, there is the constant criticism of language by the politically correct camp, batted back by the constant criticism of being a “snowflake” (trust the non-PC camp to fight back with the corruption of another perfectly sweet, innocuous word) and policing language so much that people are afraid to speak up and have a healthy debate.  There is the constant criticism of the ‘Me Too’ movement, of the women who choose not to participate in the debate and continue fulfilling their roles as traditional housewives serving their men and children, of the woman who chooses her career over having children, of the woman who chooses to forgo a job to raise her children full-time, of people who choose to drink and those who decide alcohol is not for them, of meat eaters and oh the poor vegans really get a thrashing every now and then, don’t they ...

The list goes on and really, you won’t be able to find any ideology or way of life that doesn’t get a verbal beating by its opposing camp.  And most of the time, it is quite unnecessary.  I mean as long as a woman isn’t coming into our house and kicking YOUR children, why must you have an opinion about whether she chooses her job over a baby?  And if the vegans are refraining from jumping in front of your trolleys full of steaks and frozen chicken legs, why must you make fun of their food choices?

Criticism, in some cases, is imperative and often the very first step in changing the status quo (which, once again, depending on which camp you belong to, you may or may not be in favor of, although some semblance of equality should be acknowledged as a universal good, along with Freddy Mercury’s musical genius).  So I am all for constructive criticism, which must be followed by positive action because otherwise it just becomes whinging and although we all do it, nobody likes a whinger.

But in everyday life, one has to evaluate how much of their speech is spent either complaining or criticising, and perhaps even taking a deeper look at why someone else’s political or social views bother us so much. Many times, we’d rather not do that because the root of our huffing and puffing is often an insecurity or fear or doubt that we’d best leave buried. But maybe just prod a bit at the thought, enough to realise it doesn’t affect your life and might not be a personal attack at you and your life choices, and then leave them to eat their vegan cheese.

 

Shrug off the negativity and if you’re feeling too hot, crack open a window instead of just sitting there sweating and muttering under your breath.  Maybe even notice how beautiful those bright yellow wildflowers are, growing cheerily cheekily without anyone having planted them, between concrete cracks.  

Everyone needs to engage in some spring cleaning one a year at least – getting rid of all those faded shirts and linty jumpers (another quintessentially British word) and unhelpful critical thoughts that just clog up space.  Have a happy light-hearted spring, fellows.