Saturday, 30 June 2018

Life as a Comic Book.

So here I am again. It’s night, it’s dark, the egg timer will shortly be using up another day’s worth of sand, and the blog still has no entry for Saturday 30th June 2018.

I did write a post earlier. It was one of the longest I’ve written for quite some time. It was serious, rational, well reasoned and even provocative. It could be said that it was a good post, but I decided to save it and come back to it later because I thought it needed editing. When I did come back to it… pouf . It didn’t interest me any more. The story was on a different page than the one I’m on now and it suddenly seemed too trivial to engage so much as a flea with insomnia.

Imagine you’re reading a story in a comic book. It’s about some intrepid hero with a firm jaw and eyes of steel who is piloting a battle cruiser in the war against the Venusians. And then you turn the page and read another story about an explorer deep in the jungles of Sumatra, warding off the heat, the flies and the anacondas who want to swallow him whole, while he is going through hell searching for the fabled lost city of Buggabugga. Dan Dare has now become yesterday’s news because the current page is the only current reality.

That’s how it is when you’re a recluse lacking any geographically close connections with whom you can sit over a cup of coffee or a glass of whisky or a plate of spaghetti Bolognese, talking endlessly of things shallow and profound with equal fervour while you gradually explore every aspect of their being. Life becomes a comic book, with every turn of the page bringing a different shade of perception to the question of what matters and what doesn’t.

Today is Mel’s birthday, by the way. If anyone wishes to send felicitations I will gladly pass them on. She’s still of an age where felicitations are appropriate. I’ve reached the point where commiserations are more in order.

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