Here's to you, Mr Robinson, you're a genius
Gerry and Joan inspire us to live a better life, says John Masterson, so be sure to keep watching television
Sunday December 27 2009
BROADBAND has changed my life. And most particularly, it has changed the way I watch TV. Instead of watching the news on the hour, I now catch up whenever I like. So instead of leaving the TV permanently on, I am now much more inclined to plan my viewing. I want to be entertained, so I will not miss Top Gear, ever, for anything. I will occasionally binge on a few episodes of Two and a Half Men but that is my guilty secret, and it is best not shared. And I am unable to turn off a re-run of Yes Minister or Porridge. The comedy on television certainly beats what I am aware of on the internet. But then, I am a bit of a web novice.
Television, in the one-hour format, still retains that power to change the way you think. You put in the time and it can be worth it. What you see may just stay with you longer than the next click to the current YouTube sensation. One night this month, as I planned a night in by the fire, two programmes caught my eye. The first was about the way homes for people suffering from dementia were run. What attracted me was that the person doing the examining was retired Donegal super businessman, Gerry Robinson. I have watched him do this type of thing before with the NHS, and found his ability to tackle a problem, usually a people problem, fascinating to watch.
He brings a mix of experience, common sense and humanity to the table, and you feel better for watching him at work. He makes you ask yourself: "Why am I not thinking more like that?" He is a genius at spotting a rut, and when he identifies one on TV the viewers at home are usually finding a few in their own lives. But the most impressive thing about Robinson is that his facility with figures, organisation and money is firmly embedded in a philosophy that all these things are about people and how they are treated. Dignity and self-esteem feature large in this thinking. And he has that wonderful gift of making people want to do their jobs with a bit more imagination and compassion. While the calculator is never far away, his heart is plainly in evidence on his sleeve.
The second programme was a look back on the life of Joan Baez. My biggest regret of 2008 is that I did not join her in the crowd outside the White House when Obama was elected. I was only up the road but how was I to know one of my heroes was about to leave her hotel bed and venture out in her dressing-gown?
Life for Joan is straightforward. If you believe in something you just do it -- even if it means that getting arrested and jailed is an occupational hazard. Her like-minded husband spent some of the anti-Vietnam years in jail, and while they parted then, they chat today as the best of friends and their son is in her band. For the hour of viewing everything about the woman is uplifting. Including the touching memories of her love affair with Bob Dylan which she sings about in her Diamonds and Rust with the great "my poetry was lousy you said" line. Dylan had phoned, the two lovers reminisced, and the song was written, a song he is openly proud to be in, a song where two people have stripped the cynicism away and got to the humanity.
So Gerry and Joan are two pictures for the bathroom mirror in 2010. If you have any inclination to lead a somewhat better life these are two role models worth a look. And if you have no such desires just keep watching the TV. You never know what you will come across.
- John Masterson
Sunday Independent
