Orwellian Grey

Orwellian grey hangs heavy over shimmer-wet streets, alive with daily pedestrian migrations following rituals imprinted as firmly on their minds as their gender and age, and I marvel at the madness and genius, anger, love and hate, dark, light and infinite wonder in the cosmic kaleidoscope we believe is life and world. It’s a muggy day, and the last thing I felt like doing was de-hibernating, no matter how strong the calling, just for milk. But tonight is going to be a long one. Ideas are exploding in my mind. And black coffee, unless a good expresso, is not the thing for a long cold night. So here I go, I will have milk.

But I’m glad I did. Cold, wet weather – like English weather – has its own charm. I remember when in Brighten going out many mornings on my own, walking in the freezing snow, my body wrapped warm with good outdoor shoes, thrilling at the bite of ice on my face and the crusty crunch of virgin snow under my feet.

On the way to Oxford, it’s not snowing, a bit of icy drizzle, but the same dazzling freshness, and I am bloody glad I am driving and not one of the pedestrian streams, but God, it’s cool to watch them. Not in a vindictive or nasty way, but rather marveling at our species’ ability to overcome. To face even the darkest and most dismal days, and still walk out with a smile on the other side.

Sure, some show their discomfort, displeasure, their pain. Wearing it on their faces, their body lan

guage, their demeanor. Exposing a slight glimpse of all of us, bending and just about breaking, wearing their hearts on their sleeves. But they persevere and literally weather the storm.

On the flipside, the Rambo jamboree; the looney-tunes in shorts and ‘look folks, I’m tough’ expressions as they grind their discomfort down into teeth drawing the short-end of the rough-and-tough deal. Then of course the true athletes who just as literally will brave any conditions, to torture their souls. Respect. Don’t quite get it, but respect.

But then I think back to the times when we too were young lions, sometimes wearing down our teeth, sometimes cowering away like proverbial babies. But most times, just going about our business, sucking the best we could out of life and living. And that is exactly what most of these I am watching, preventing such a diverse spectrum of ‘faces’ to the freeze, are doing. Simply going about their business. And that is so cool.

Humanity is not easily deterred, and that is both good and bad, and a paradox to who and what we are. We go about our business undeterred – which is good for the world when that business spreads light. But those with bad intent have the same drive and focus. And that hurts our world. Either way, we are magnificent in our creation – all that lives - and it’s still a wonderful world. May those spreading the light care more…