"For A Successful Life"

From my deck chair perched atop the roof of the entrance hall I have a good view on the decaying chicken run of the loner of number 29, on the algae in the neighbour’s new inflatable pool that replaced the previous one after it proved impossible to clean and which will inevitably make place for another one next year, on the bare unstuccoed cheap brick walls of number 33 and on the row of overgrown cypresses that hide the shed, with a hole cut into it for access. Consequently, I look up instead.
Human evolution missed a turn, I think as I watch a flock of swallows chasing each other with reckless abandon. But then again, one day that bird will just drop dead out of the sky only to be forgotten in an instant. On the other extreme are people who toil themselves to exhaustion for 80 years for family, friends and the world at large just to insure that when they finally shuffle off, they will be sorely missed.
Few animals consciously choose where they sit on that scale, least of all those on the latter end who, after all, would seem best equipped to make that choice.

Wednesday 25 July 2012