Tuesday 27 October 2015

The Mundane and the Maddening.

I was sitting eating a carton of chips today (and activities don’t come much more mundane than eating a carton of chips) when I was struck down by that old frustration again. I was watching the people walking up and down the street and puzzling whether it was they who were moving, or time, or both. The whole thing seemed oddly unreal in a way that I couldn’t even describe to myself, let alone expound upon in any form of language. I asked myself: ‘What the hell is going on here? Here is an existence composed of an endless succession of moments, but there’s no such thing as a moment because flow doesn’t permit the concept.’ (A librarian told me recently that I’m probably using the wrong formula to address a question that is essentially mathematical, but maths was never my strongest subject. The teacher said it must have been due to laziness on my part, since I was good at everything else.)

Now, it occurs to me that one of Albert’s relativity theories probably explains the whole thing, but by the time my existential curiosity had reached the point of wanting to know, my mind had grown far too lazy (again!) to dedicate itself to any of Albert’s pronouncements (apart from the philosophical ones; they’re easy.)

But the chips were as good as ever, and 5-pack doughnuts (the custard variety by choice) remain easily the least expensive form of post-chip niceness. And the weather had grown rather too mild for the coat I was wearing, and two little girls came and sat by me which was a timely reminder that the company of children is almost as nice as the company of friendly horses…

And then there are voices. This guy’s voice is amazing. The song is another favourite and comes from the same album (Bohème by Deep Forest) as the last one.

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