It works for me

I had a long conversation with a guy at work today. A visitor. Despite the fact that it was the first day of his holiday, he was in a rather glum mood, I have to say. I was bracing myself for the complaint that I seem to get weekly these days - where someone decides that the British climate is completely my fault and they should be given a full refund because the sun didn't come out - but actually his unhappiness was not down to the weather. It wasn't self-centred at all, in fact, which is quite a rarity among most of the people I encounter.
"I just don't know how we can forgive ourselves for bringing our children into this world," he told me. "This world where online anger is more attractive than natural light, and where those who shout the loudest are more important than those who got the most votes. Have you seen what's been going on? I'm a Londoner and I'm ashamed of what's happening in my home city."
"I don't know much about it," I told him (because I didn't know much about it). He explained to me about various protests that took place over the weekend, which I was pleased to report I had managed to avoid any knowledge of the existence of. I didn't appreciate him dragging me into the real world, but I didn't want to appear rude so I just said, "If you put lots of angry people together in a room, they're not going to calm each other down, they're going to rile each other up. I don't see why a protest would be any different."
"I just don't know what they think they're going to achieve," he said, exasperated, "and it looks like our days of discussing things peacefully are extinct now. Everything has to be confrontational, and it all has to be instragammed and snapchatted."
A lot of work was waiting for me back in my office, but I could tell he was needing to get this off his chest, so I sat with him a bit longer. He told me a lot of weird stuff about his teenage years, and then said, "I worry about my children growing up amongst all this madness; and worse - I worry they might aspire to get involved."
I shrugged my shoulders and smiled as reassuringly as I could.
"You seem so chilled and unconcerned," he said, "How on Earth do you do it?"
I smiled and answered him honestly: "I concentrate on my work. I concentrate on my family. And everything else I ignore."

RC 15-9-25