I don’t like cling-film. Never have and never will. The premise behind its unfortunate existence was (I would admit) rather good. Covering and preserving food goods to avoid unnecessary waste for households. However, this economically positive message is the last thought on my mind when I’m desperately trying to prise the film off its roll without tearing it. And even if I succeed with that task, I then have to try and wrestle with it to avoid being tangled by its strangely strong static qualities. Without fail, and however hard I try, cling-film will always cling to everything in my kitchen other than the sandwich I want it to. Subsequently, the majority of the time I end up screwing the mangled piece of cling film up and hoping that my flower power lunch box will keep my sandwich fresh until lunch time.
I’m certain I’m not alone on this subject. I suspect there are millions of fellow cling-film cynics across the world, all desperately wanting to vent their frustration against cling-film and all its clingy irritation. In fact, I bet cling-film has maddened enough people to create a decent sized Facebook group against the static stuff. That is if there isn’t one already. I will have to check and invite you!
There is one thing that cling-film is good for. It’s a great item to use when describing my opinion about Thurrock’s community spirit. Confused? Don’t be. This unlikely match will make complete sense in a few minutes or so. Well, I hope it will!
When Thurrock has an organised event or a gathering the community are quick off the mark to produce and support one great occasion. Unfortunately, other than these organised get-togethers, community spirit is hard to spot. Therefore, just like cling-film it is a 50:50 chance that community spirit will work. We walk around in our everyday routines just like individual rolls of cling-film. We are an incredibly reserved breed that is reluctant to open ourselves up to opportunities and would rather stay wrapped up in our individual spaces. When others approach us about opportunities that could change our daily routine we become apprehensive and flustered. Instantly our instincts tell us to avoid anything that would make us uncomfortable, and so we cling to our safe surroundings in fear that our daily routine is under attack of being torn apart. Sound familiar?
Just like it is unnatural for cling-film to come off its tube, it is unnatural for the large majority of us to step away from our safe/familiar spaces and open ourselves up to change. Unfortunately this decision means that community spirit is constantly dwindling. If more of us decided to adopt a new spontaneous way of life and eased ourselves away from the safe quarters of our tube like lives, we would be saving our community spirit from the threat of extinction. For example, the more spontaneous people become, the more involved they will then get in the community. People will then begin to meet each other, friendships will be made and the community bond will become stronger. If these changes happened then community spirit would no longer be an occasional occurrence that is initiated by a specially organised event. In other words, we need to become more like tinfoil; easy and willing to adapt to any space.
