On the Beach

One of the books I've been thinking about lately is Nevil Shute's On the Beach. (Because I read it, and saw the movie based on it, around 1960, I just checked Wikipedia to make sure that I had remembered the thrust of the work reasonably accurately.) What struck me when I originally read it, and what has stuck in my mind ever since, is the behavior of the characters in this fictional work as they await in Australia the inexorable approach of fatal radiation poisoning from atomic warfare in the Northern Hemisphere. They go about their lives and mundane activities, planting gardens, etc., as if they have all the time in the world. "Surely," I thought as a young man, "people would not behave that way-- I certainly would not behave that way in the face of certain doom! I would devote myself to profound thoughts and extraordinary actions!"

Now, I think Shute had it right. Starting tomorrow, I'm hoping to watch all of the televised portions of The Masters golf tournament. Because of work, I never watched all of the broadcast on Thursday and Friday; and out of a feeling that I really ought to be doing something more physically or mentally active, I don't know if I ever watched all of it on Saturday and Sunday. I feel no such scruples this year!