online: 6 march 2007
modified: 6 march 2007

3 march 2007 life goes on


...notes on the way:

i walked towards the heath through nearly private roads between expensive houses... and i remembered someone who felt so disappointed when one day he realised that every inch of the city is owned by someone, even the roads... (and, i note now, even the air spaces above railway stations, in which huge blocks of offices have been erected recently, for instance above Liverpool Street)...

...i suppose private ownership of bits of the earth (or any other part of the cosmos) can be said, in the first instance, to be public robbery... yet even animals and insects exclusively occupy some space in and around their bodies, which they also seem to own or to claim with physical force, if not economic...

... on my way i saw a car that seemed to me a more integrated exterior shape than most... and when i got close i saw that it is the Toyota Prius (hybrid) with what is called Synergy Drive... presumably it has some kind of fuel-saving engine... (i see now from Google that it is gas/petrol electric)... my first reaction was slight pleasure at finding both the interior mechanisms and the exterior shape of a product being more integrated than is usual... and i rejoiced at this improvement (even if slight) in environmental design and public action...



on the heath:

17:41 ...at the tumulus (random point 2)... after walking from the heath extension (random point 8)... a sunny evening in spring... few clouds, pink and blue-grey, along the horizon...

...as i write the full moon emerges just above the clouds, and a largish insect collides with the tip of my nose and immediately flies away... and now it returns, perhaps attracted by body heat...

...the moon is now rising quickly and appears golden yellow against dull grey haze... I can see 13 people, and one large dog, walking in ones and twos in the dusk... and a small bird is whistling as if imitating a human...

... writing now with pencil, as it is becoming too dark to write on the screen... the moon is now passing behind a small grey cloud, through which its shape is still visible... the city lights have come on... traffic sounds seem far away... i look thankfully at tall trees... and muddy ground... and grass... and silent buildings in the distance... even a church steeple (to me a phallic gesture with heavenly aspiration)...

...i'll cease writing now, for that is quite enough to celebrate this moment...

...at the station i asked why the fruit and vegetable stall has disappeared... apparently it was driven away by the opening of a supermarket nearby... what a shame, for the stall holders and for us... the quality of what they sold was excellent and many of us knew the people who worked there and we enjoyed their presence for many years... but 'life goes on' said the station master, helplessly shrugging his shoulders...





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