Been a weird day. Nod has been in a bad way since his appalling mother died. He hated her. He told me earlier that during their last phone conversation on the day she died she told him that he had always treated her badly (he didn't) and that he was the worst son in the world. He said that she had managed to insert guilt into his head.
I quoted the great Larkin at him:
This Be The Verse
BY PHILIP LARKIN
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
We ended up having a pretty difficult conversation and I found myself asking if his mother had put him under pressure. He reacted pretty strongly and went on a rant about all the pressure she had put him under all his life......... It was pretty intense. I know I take the piss out of poor Nod, but he is a good mate.
He ranted about "pressure" for about half an hour.
I pointed out that the ONLY item he had salvaged from his mum's house was a barometer.
He immediately threw it away.
