Check out this YouTube clip of Pathe News’ Wimbledon feature (1962). I was directed to this because someone wanted a voiceover in a similar style.

At first I found it quaint and rather funny, since it seems like yesterday to me… but then I got to thinking…

“Imagine what someone in 1962 would have thought about the styles and culture of 1902.” What a long way we have travelled since then (though whether it is all ‘progress’ is a matter for debate.) “What would someone in 2000 think of the styles and culture of WWII Britain?” All of a sudden, 60 years seems like an age, a lifetime, and, of course, it is!

Equally suddenly, I’m feeling ‘old’ though not necessarily in a bad way. Where will we be in 60 years’ time? I can imagine someone from the Swinging Sixties finding the Victorians quaint and a bit weird. And how about a New Romantic looking back on the 1920s?

The big question for us is how much culture has changed in the way we heal threats to our mental health. The 1960s saw an enormous shift away from institutionalisation – and what were called ‘asylums’ were systematically closed. Care moved towards the family and the Community, with the unwelcome result that many sufferers became homeless because neither family nor Community could cope.

Jump with me into a time machine. Let’s pop to the future… 60 years into the future. What has to change for the world to become a more humane and compassionate place?

I’ll close with something that made me weep this week (in a wholesome way). It is the story behind the hymn, “It is well with my soul.” This is one of the best productions I’ve ever seen - with Hugh Bonneville as the narrator: https://youtu.be/ReApJymYSiw

Fair warning, it’s nearly 17 minutes long but well worth the investment of your time. Why am I sharing it? Primarily, out of curiosity. When things go wrong for me, I rage and I rant! Without spoiling this story, these ‘souls’ transformed their sorrow into service, and I am in awe. How can we learn to be more like them?

Lex

A Moodscope member.