...why is this environment unsupportive of what i am attempting - is it that everyone here seems under pressure?...
...what, if anything, attracts me, or provokes me to write?...
...i decide simply to attend to what is before me, even if i don't like it...
...a man is pushing a trolley for carrying soft drinks to shelves and for collecting discarded wrappings and boxes... the man and the trolley move as if, together, they comprise a pseudo robot (an unintelligent machine coupled to a much degraded human intelligence)...
...children (waiting for adults who are shopping) react disconnectedly to this over-connective yet discordant place...
...an older boy seems engrossed in a partially intelligent gadget... and then he responds briefly to someone who attracts his attention by tapping on the window... and then he returns to the gadget...
...a man stops to read a newspaper without buying it...
...several children eat crisps or other foods from little plastic bags...
...a tall man takes a newspaper to the checkout without attempting to read it...
...a woman chooses a bunch of flowers from several on display and she seems happy to be doing so...
...and, as i look about, i try to imagine the thousands of supermarkets round the world, and the tens of thousands of products in each one of them...
...then i begin reading some of the signs:
Great Offers
a range of products
that changes every week
isn't this crazy?
no, it's TOCHIBO!
bring 5 old carrier bags
and we will recycle them
and give you a free
Bag for Life
(normal price 10p)
our Bag for Life
can last up to 25 times as long as
a disposable carrier bag
and we will replace it for free
if it wears out
HELP KEEP THE WORLD A BEAUTIFUL PLACE
...and nearby a woman transfers food from carrier bags to her knapsack...
...we are all parts of the delivery system, are we not, from natural sources to eventual excretion or other forms of waste disposal... this whole cycle, not just bits of it such as i see before me and in which we all participate blindly, surely needs our most serious attention as a whole (as well as comprising the industrial comedy of the modern age!)...
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© 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