online: 29 june 2011 modified: 28, 29 june 2011 28 june 2011 red sky
between tall buildings
...and after a thunderstorm during which warm air at 35 C from the east was replaced by cooler air at about 20 C from the west... and now, after heavy rain, the atmosphere feels fresh again and perhaps new thoughts can prevail...
...the red sunset's now gone and scene's turned to dark and light grey... interspersed with bright lights of apartment windows and the neon signs of hotels, offices etc... the sleeping places, work places and leisure places of which the modern city is composed... and as i begin to list them:
restaurant, school, hospital, bank, police station, church, brothel, shopping centre etc.
i'm reminded that there are hundreds of activities that city buildings may officially or unofficially house... simply listing their names or purposes does not represent the vast 24 hour heart-to-mind complexity of all that happens in any city building or outside it... a total beyond enumeration in the brains of specialists or even architects... or even James Joyce*
*in 'Ulysses' his vast poetic novel of a day in the life an ordinary man in Dublin
...and now i'm sitting in the dark before a window and seeing reflected light from lightning far away as the storm centre moves on... but there may be more to come...
...yes, i hear louder rumblings overhead but as yet do not see any local strikes followed by loud cracks of thunder within a few seconds or less... (i was once only 25 metres away when lightning struck a railtrack and the simultaneous sound-and-flash was too loud and bright and too frightening to describe)...
...but this modern city with its lightning conductors and its fire service (and its building regulations which we hope are well enforced) has changed thunderstorms from being real dangers (or the voices of disapproving gods) to disregarded phenomena, or even entertainments... as this thunderstorm is to me...
...but here we are in a new century... immune to what were disasters in the past but open to unpleasant surprises as the senseless growth of the economy and of the population are warning us of greater disasters in the future if we do not act more intelligently and with imagination, restraint and foresight...
...but now the thunder's just a rumble in the distance... and i switch on the up-to-now reliable electric light... (while noting that i was enabled by a self-illuminating touchscreen to write some of this in darkness independent of the over-centralised generation and distribution of electric power)...
next day:
in breezy western wind and sunshine i watch the trees shake and the clouds move free of excessive heat or thunderous weather and i enjoy the normality of an ordinary summer day... the plants and buildings seem totally unaffected by the storm and most people i suppose return to dull routines as well as the ups and downs of life as planned, evolved, organised... or unexpected...
...but is there something else that can be noted here in aftermath of the storm and in a mind shaken up a bit by a welcome atmospheric disturbance?
in this vision of universal change from centralism to its reverse, one or two things are essential: for example, how to let go and how to keep the centre empty
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