...a mild sunday afternoon... clouds over London... some patches of sun... and inclined rays of sunlight in the mist over distant parts of the city...
...a young man, breathing audibly, runs up the hill towards me... he looks exhausted
...several crows (which were walking under the oak beside me) are suddenly chased away by another crow and they do not return... they were replaced by two squirrels (perhaps eating fallen nuts)...
...small children (reluctant to walk) cry loudly as they are carried or dragged where adults want them to go...
...and i wonder if it is quite rare for any group of humans, or animals, to share the wish to travel in the same direction - or to stay in the same place...
...i suspect that most of the time we are compromising, or being forced by custom, or by the power of a few...
...so is the whole city, and even the forest path, an imposed pattern that few of us actually want?... probably yes!
station:
as i walked here i wondered if the whole idea of freedom, of individualism, of human rights etc... is a gross mistake?
evening:
and now (as i edit this and put it online) i realise that this question implies the end of progress, of modernism, of imposed evolution... and a recognition that we are not separate individuals but connected beings, obliged by our condition to think and act as one, as far as we can, and to seek satisfaction in that... in our interactions... and to make those freer and more extensive... more mobile... but not to live in conflict, or to impose, or to compromise...
there may well be something missing from these statements but nevertheless i feel that they are the beginning of a life new to me, and perhaps to others?... signs of a new kind of sociality, unoppressive but more comforting, and more inspiring, than the compromises we inherit from the failed ideas of freedom and independence, and choice... (good as they were in their time)
(these pages are designed to be read with the window set to two-thirds of the screen width)
what's newdaffodil email newsletter
© 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 john chris jonesIf you wish to reproduce any of this text commercially please send a copyright permission request to jcj at publicwriting.net