What! Me worry?@column head = What! Me worry?
Now there's something you wouldn't have credited. Here I was thinkin' that I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. All those years I spent hopin' the good times would visit us again, believing in all that I was told ... And you know what it turned out to be?
No. What would that be, then?
The glint from John Howard's glasses.
Yeah. Right.
Don't get me wrong. I was my own worst enemy. Sometimes I think I'm no judge of character. But I was sittin' there watching the box the day the budget came down, and thinkin' that my problem is that I take life too seriously. I worry too much.
You're not alone in that.
Maybe so. But I was watchin' the telly and I started to think about this new federal government. It's real laid back like. That Costello fella's not up nights fretting about the economy, is he? John Howard doesn't come across as a worry wart? No. They're all actin' like they don't have a care in the world. So I got to thinkin' about that.
About the Howard government?
Yeah. Then it struck me. They're not worried about me. They don't give a fig. Whether I'm workin' or not doesn't concern them one bit.
So. What's so good about that?
You remember how the Labor Party would say it "cared". Remember the way Bob Hawke used to go on about "my fellow Australians".
And cry. Sure, I remember.
It was all bull, the lot of it.
Yeah. So what's your point?
At least with this government, what you see is was you get. Love 'em or loathe 'em, at least they tell it straight: It's every man for himself. Dog eat dog.
So?
Well it struck me, didn't it? I'd never thought about it before. It came on me like a revelation: Don't worry. They don't. Why should I? Who gives a stuff if unemployment's eight or 14% — just so long I'm not among them. As for getting on — maybe I'll cark it before I have to retire so I won't need to concern myself about drawing a pension ... because there won't be one. You only have to worry about today.
Just so long as tomorrow never comes.
Oh, it comes all right but you're not goin' to catch me saving up for it. No way. I'm not goin' to bother myself with getting my own nest egg together.
You're not?
Not me mate. No way. I'll be spending all the money I earn where it can do the most good.
And where may that be?
Up here, on the old brain box.
You gonna do a course or somethin'?
No, mate. Therapy. I reckon I'll need it.
By Dave Riley
E-mail: dhell@ozemail.com.au. Website: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dhell>. Phone: (07) 3266 4281.