Fiddling About.

I'm a haunted man. Many years ago I came across the Phrase 'Nero fiddled while Rome burned.' I can't remember if I heard it or read it but I took it to mean that the Emperor of Rome was playing his violin and lazing around, while the Empire collapsed around him. This is not actually what it means at all but that was the interpretation I put on it at the time and the phrase has remained in my subconscious as an ominous warning ever since.

It seems to be telling me that if I don't 'look to my laurels' I shall suffer dire but unknown consequences. A good analogy would be decorating your house with 
the finest furniture and fabrics while termites are undermining the foundations. Unfortunately pastimes like music and writing fall firmly into the fiddling category. They are fundamentally, when all is said and done and the fat lady has stopped singing, pointless. In the wider scope of things they do bring pleasure to millions, raise us above the animals and are the essence of culture but someone has to dig the drains to prevent the diseases so we don't all die horrible deaths and can live to enjoy the icing on the cake of life. 

It seems to me that writing and music are frivolous and time spent on them is somehow wasted. I should spend my time on more worthy projects such as DIY, car maintenance, overtime at work or devising a way to earn a second income. I feel that I have been dillying and dallying, day-dreaming and procrastinating rather than getting on with the job in hand. I should stop reading fiction and start reading politics, history and science; put away my CD's and tune into Radio Four. Maybe it's time to stand up, be counted and get political, I'm sure they do tea and biscuits at the meetings. I feel I should start getting involved with life itself rather than a shallow reflection of it. 

No doubt over the coming months I shall take life more seriously. I shall read more factual books which will introduce me to things to get unreasonably annoyed about. I shall become more political and rage at the establishment and shout at the telly. I will start doing more work around the house and become frustrated when it doesn't go as planned. I shall try to lose weight, get fit and give up drinking and then resent the time and effort it takes. Nero has a lot to answer for.