Yes..And...

Do you think love is the strongest emotion?

Perhaps you think jealousy is? That's a different topic…(and  a short story in waiting…)

What about caring?… oh sorry…am I boring you…?

CARING…you do know what that is, don't you? You have given this some thought? Oh God, please tell me that you have.

Sorry, I should explain. I mean caring for other people.. 

People other than you.

OTHERS!

So who do you care about? 

Your social network? 

Your family? 

Your first-degree relatives?

Because I will put this to you. 

Anybody in your life that you think you care about…. if you don't know whether or not they are alive or dead…. then you do NOT care about them.

You're busy, self-centred ambition makes that impossible.

Maybe you'll go to their funeral…but it's not really them that is dead, is it?

And if LOVE is supposed to be something elevated ABOVE care, then you have a real problem. Because when you can't recognise care, then any concept of love becomes a simple numbers game, a contractual negotiation on top of some basic fundamental, grey, dirty, concrete, underpinnings of minimum-wage "care".

Well, I'm going to tell you something.

Care isn't an underpinning. It isn't minimum-wage, (even when it is).

It isn't cheap….it's rich.

It may cost nothing, or next to nothing….but it's done by heroes which means… for the avoidance of doubt …. not every member of the human race.

It's rare. It's beautiful. But it's more tacky Old Kent Road than spritzy Mayfair.

It may fall to echelons of society that are considered lower, (and I'm not claiming they are all the correct souls  for it…because some some of them need equalizing)... 

But it's not easy to find a Captain of personal industry when there is no reward.

It doesn't come with cocktail parties. 

It doesn't come with dinners. 

It doesn't come with awards, or thanks or LBDs. 

It likely comes with spit and shit and abuse.

How much of that would you think someone as repulsive as Michael Mansfield would tolerate on his cravat? 

5 seconds? 

10?

50 hours a week?

When care is considered basic…when it can even be prefixed with the word "basic", how offensive is that?

How would you prepare your private company's "tender" to provide "basic" care?

Are there even two  words more oxymoronic than 'basic' and 'care'.

Tell me.

I'm asking.

Care isn't a foundation. Or at least an expectation of one isn't foundation alone. 

It may be fundamental, but it's not trivial and it's not automatic.

Care is a battle.

It's a right.

It's a duty and it's a privilege.

But it doesn't come from an ITV2 advert from Irwin Mitchell.

It doesn't come from a pension plan from Michael Parkinson.

These are greedy morons who don't understand what care is.

Care may be a carefully placed decoration on top of a cake, as much as it is a basic right to £7 an hour.

It is a touch, a thought. It is an e-mail. 

It is a phone call, a Christmas card with a personal message rather than a signature or Best Wishes in a single inverted comma. 

Why bother sending a card to somebody once a year? For pity's sake….. open your eyes.

Those that really care may…may… care enough to forego, reframe or observe any selfish modern interpretation of love as one of modern hypocrisy and convenience.

And if you've glazed over or don't recognise what I'm talking about, then you can't care. 

So don't tell me you can love.

Because between me and the happy rich divorce lawyers, only one of those is getting paid to believe you.

That's OK, it's not me you have to convince. And I have no ego about this… I know I'm irrelevant. 

But you don't.

You may not recognise a truth when it's said. Or written.

Caring is an emotion that is so much more strong.

Maybe you have the capacity to do it for your own children but maybe even that is a strain!

Lord…. 1, 2 or 3 persons out of 8 billion. 

That's poor.

There are some who do it for everybody who brushes through their life. 

Every time they have an opportunity.

Every time they can offer a kind word.

Every time they can bake a cake.

I reckon there may be used to be more of them than there are now.

I will let you decide when then was, because a country has decided that our over-twittered bloated souls haven't yet died.

They have another chance to bring all our lives in line, to pull us all together.

That 'then' is here again.

That care is back.  But only if you want. 

That's democracy.

Call this a rant if it makes you feel better. 

Consider it meaningless.

Forget it.  

Live your life. 

Feel better.

And make tomorrow the same as today. 

Or don't.