March 2, 2021
Being alive, having that experience was amusing twice this morning. It rubbed off on me, changed me a tiny bit. I used up some of my remaining freshness by laughing. I gained another laugh line. I am less young and smooth than I was before this morning. What happened to cause this?
I watched and listened in real time as a friend argued with Alexa. I heard the question as it was posed and listened as the machine became gloriously confused. Alexa just seemed to start talking out of it’s head about something completely irrelevant… Then, in an attempt to restart the conversation, I could hear my friend say, “Alexa…no. Alexa…stop. Alexa…cancel.” Each request fell on a deaf microphone as the machine kept on. I laughed and laughed. Listening to that argument was an early high point of my day. Later, I drove past a man and his little curly-haired dog. They were out for a stroll and came to a point of some disagreement, I could see that the dog had planted it’s feet quite stubbornly. It was a stand-off between man and dog. The two were facing each other, man looking down, dog looking up. Comical.
Two showdowns affected my day, man against dog, man against machine. My mood was changed and both battles ended as a draw. I laughed, I used up some of my air. My lips widened into smile and further creased my chin. I witnessed life going on and it had a consequence, I was moved, changed, marked. The ordinary chaos of living through a day gave me a mark to notice in my mirror reflection. That mark is proof of an experience to remember, to comment on, to laugh about and enjoy. I don’t regret earning the mark. Living has consequences. Whether you sit it out or get involved. Whether you choose to notice life or ignore it, there are consequences from simply being where time is passing. The sun wrinkles your skin, whether you are laying about on the beach or labouring in the fields.
The consequence of living is a thing, a mark, a change. Whether you are doing the ‘right’ thing or not, being alive leaves marks. Making a good choice leaves a mark. Making a bad choice leaves a mark. Standing still leaves a mark. Agonizing over the choices that left marks only leaves more. We are going to have marks, no matter what. The glass blower’s cheeks are witness to the hours spent puffing away, working, doing the right thing. This happened to Louis Armstrong, too but he was puffing into another sort of bent pipe. I did some puffing once, long ago but I was puffing in. That changed me, inside. I argued for a long time that my insides are a little loose, my brain rattles because I did the wrong thing. I was naughty. Maybe I was. But…maybe I was wrong to waste time worrying about it?
Unlike Louis or the glass blower, my cheeks are billowy and sagging because I talk too much, not because I puffed in too much. Whether my talking was musical or beautiful is a good question. One fellow I was spouting off to stopped me. It was at break time when I was working. I (as you know) like to describe and consider the world around me. I was off on some sort of tangent when the fellow stopped me. “…stop for just a second, Bob. You can go ahead and talk…in fact I sort of like listening to you….but I think you should know, I have no idea what you are talking about!”
I know that at the time of it’s happening, my puffing in felt okay…if it had been legal, I might done more than I did. It was afterward that I worried about consequence. “What will people think of me?” I was human, though and ‘human’ is probably what people think of me. I guess a lot of us do worry about consequence when we are dealing with it and not before, when we are enjoying it’s source. The point is that there is no point to worry about consequence when it arrives…best to just touch the saggy cheeks of it and shrug. On we go. (Lovely work, Mr. Glass blower…good luck with Alexa and the dog…ta ta!)
Robert On The Air 