online: 31 august 2009 modified: 1 september 2009 31 august 2009 what in the world
from panorama walk to the tumulus
...today being a public holiday the heath is crowded... i had to walk past many occupied seats before finding a vacant one... from which the city view is masked by trees...
...somewhat reluctantly i pay attention to what's before me: an almost indoor view of a piece of woodland... (knowing that the city view i hoped to see is just beyond it)... in the distance i hear the thunderous beat of diesel generators, the amplified sounds of funfare voices, and the faint sound of a wood pigeon...
...i look up up from the screen and encounter the shocking sight of a man without arms and with hands at his shoulders... a victim i imagine of the Thalidomide accident of the 1950s and 60s... evidently he is by now adapted to this unusual body form but my expectations and perceptions are still upset by the sight... yet in the future there may be many more such seemingly unnatural sights... not only accidental but deliberate: an expansion of the age-long urge to alter body forms by tattoos or body piercing or hair dressing or dentistry or high-heeled shoes or plastic surgery or... i recall the audience's anger at the sight of deliberatley ugly distortions of her nose and face by the artist Orlan
...an aged but contented-looking couple, holding hands... both of them look at me and smile as they walk past...
later:
directed by chance to the last seat of tumulus*, i turn my thoughts to what are we doing in this world... and i wait a few minutes for an answer...
...during which time i look at familiar sights and listen to familiar sounds...
...then the lady with a lapdog walks by and tells me that the air temperature today was 27 degrees...
...there is no answer but these examples of what is happening here and now... and that is enough... the correct answer i think!
*to me the eight seats that encircle the tumulus are reminders of my eight decades
for comfortable line length set the window to about two-thirds of the screen width
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