Neon Favourites
By Eric (Discover English Teacher)
We’re inching towards freedom. It’s lovely. But we’re still in lockdown for a while longer and sometimes that will wear us down. I know at times I just feel overburdened; crushed by the relentlessness, and the loneliness. Sometimes the lockdown is bearable, and sometimes it is not.
In the times when it’s not I find it useful to think about – and try to be around – my favourite things. Just like in the Sound of Music song, they can help us deal with the bee stings of life.
One of my favourite things is Neon Lighting. It’s a weird love, but oh how deeply do I love neon lights. Over the years I’ve amassed quite a little collection of the things and in the darkness of these lockdown nights I turn them all on and bask in the lolly-coloured glow. Sure my electricity bill will be huge, but I’m smiling.
There’s a magic to neon; it’s a special piece of human ingenuity – to take this fragile collection of glass and gas and somehow turn it into a strident, brilliant light in all the colours of the rainbow. It’s also synonymous with the city, and the city is my spirit animal. I may not be able to walk the city during lockdown but a neon light can lessen the gaping hole in my soul.
I wouldn’t write about my love of neon except that my sister sent me this link the other day:
It seems that as Melbourne re-opens, the city streets will be decorated in neon, and light- and sound- scapes. So as we tentatively return to Melbourne’s famous bars and restaurants, the whole city will be an immersive, glowing, art experience.
It’s yet another wonderful thing to look forward to as the end of lockdown approaches.
And what about you – what are your favourite things? Why?
Know them, and hold them tight.