Monday 21 July 2008

The Daily Grind


I'm inherently more of an observer of life than one who participates (I'm attracted to the sidelines more often than not), I enjoy stories and the most mind-boggling stories, for me personally, are those of people going about their daily business. I commute to university, thus I have a lot of time to sit and observe people on their daily grind and it fascinates me how immersed people are in their routines. On some strange level it's like watching ants. The lady with the umbrella - just in case it rains - will always be standing at the corner at 07:45 waiting for the car that picks her up and the man in blue overalls, whom I assume is a plumber, is always at the door of a corner shop at 07:50 eating a sandwich. It's like clockwork the way this all happens. Maybe this is because I'm crazy, but I imagine that underneath all of this preciseness there is some sort of anarchy waiting to be unleashed. In my head I see people throwing stones at buses, burning cars and strangling cats... they're all just waiting for an excuse to escape from mediocrity of the daily grind. That's how all the crazy things happen in the world, one cog becomes loose and all of a sudden there's a revolt against something you did not even knew existed... but it's always been there, looming. Thus I sit on the bus surrounded by the chatter of people on their way to work and a little part of me is afraid that this serene picture could easily explode into a huge ball of violence.

3 comments:

Psirux said...

Burn, smash, grab, trample! Hey Charlie, it could be that this sense of anarchy is actually tugging at you and not just making you apprehensive eh?

You know what I've started thinking lately? I think my thoughts are becoming just a tad too anarchical. Whenever I ponder on anarchy occuring by whatever fashion, I find that the thought doesn't bother me much at all. Not in the sense that I don't just care, but that I accept the idea in my mind. And its also in a very clear sense as well, so one might not ascribe it to just random emotion. The reason? I don't know.

I don't think I'm self destructive by nature. So when I think about it, all sorts of possible sources for my comfort with anarchical phenomenon pop up. But they just might be rationalizations...

I mean, it could just be a duality complex couldn't it? Without chaos, one could not really appreciate order maybe? After all, what would one be ordering but the chaos? I ponder further and think, one could actually find some value in that chaos, streth one's feelers...as long as one is not too broken to continue ofcourse. Its like the wizard watches her tower fall and crumble...and it no longer contains her...and she goes and builds another...or settles in a hut by the sea and finds peace.

Lewis said in "the great divorce" that you gotta burry it before it can truly rise didn't he? And don't tell me I'm misapplying his wisdom as wisdom is oft found in unexpected ways:-)

Charles Siboto said...

You're not misapplying his wisdom dear boy and as you say, wisdom can be found in the strangest of places :)

It seems that for that guy who killed a fellow pupil with a katana last week something just snapped and the underlying chaos just came rushing through.

Psirux said...

Yes, it all comes to an end, one way or another8< and so the world goes...