Marilyn

Friday morning hangs over me, and once again I was reluctant to get up and have a morning run. A late afternoon run was the consequence.

Although the course I chose was very different to that I went on yesterday, I did come up Richmond Road onto Ponsonby Road. This made me very pleased that I chose to blip the thought yesterday. Just 24 hours later what I posted yesterday has been completely removed by person(s) unknown. I am rather pleased that I have given that particular thought a wider audience, at the same time as attempts are being made to blunt the message.

Back along Ponsonby Road, on the way home, I went past this store which was the subject of a blip some four months ago. This rather bizarre collection of odds and ends from the 1950s (retro, I guess) features a book about Marilyn Monroe. Jewellery and lampshades seem unusual bed fellows (or shop-window-fellows).

I note that the last time I blipped this shop, I wrote about seeing a poor man whose mental illness and social needs are not being addressed in a country which prides itself on caring for those who cannot care for themselves. Being back in an inpatient unit for the first time in nearly ten years, I am seeing so many people who deserve more care than they are getting. It is, if anything, worse than when I was there before. My current role is temporary, and I have little opportunity to make any difference. I feel the need to try, nevertheless.

I wonder who tried for Marilyn. She was a gifted comedian, whose desperate sadness appears to have not been responded to by those who knew her. Instead powerful men took advantage of her need. Does anything ever really change?