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nnyI use to be younger than I am now. It's hard to believe.
That sounds ridiculous, so let me 'splain. It's hard to imagine knowing any less than I know now, just as it's hard to imagine my ever changing or learning, even though it happens every day. I can't conceive of knowing more than I do... or at least, I can conceive of it in an abstract way- one day I will know more- rather than in a specific way- one day, I will know this.
In a time when I was younger and thoroughly more innocent, I used to drink swimming pool water. It wasn't always intentional- it often involved the spitting of said water at various siblings in order to make them squeal. Chlorine tasted alright, though.
As far as the sea went... I didn't know, back then, about the various sewage, pollution, dead fish and smelly people that shared my bathing water. I was more naive and, cliche as it is to say, life was easier. I didn't worry so much. I was quite capable of wandering up to random strangers and starting conversations with them. I made friends on the beach that were friends for life... or at least, until the evening and home time, and isn't that almost the same thing at six? All I wanted in the world was an ice cream, and to ride the trolley car up to the top of the cliff rather than have to walk back to the car. I built sand castles, and chased the waves, and ran and squealed and believed my dad really was asleep as I dumped bucket fulls of damp sand all over him. He made me into a mermaid, once, so it was only fair. I was happy, all those summer days.
Now I swim with my mouth closed.
Olives taste like the sea. That strange taste in the back corners of your mouth, salt and wet but happier than tears... that's what olives taste like. They taste like childhood summer days. And that, Sophie m'dear, is why I fancied an olive at five o'clock this morning.
Anyone have any burning questions? About life, the universe, how lightbulbs work, why your teeth fit together at the back? I can't promise I'll know the answer, but by god I'll lie with panache.
That sounds ridiculous, so let me 'splain. It's hard to imagine knowing any less than I know now, just as it's hard to imagine my ever changing or learning, even though it happens every day. I can't conceive of knowing more than I do... or at least, I can conceive of it in an abstract way- one day I will know more- rather than in a specific way- one day, I will know this.
In a time when I was younger and thoroughly more innocent, I used to drink swimming pool water. It wasn't always intentional- it often involved the spitting of said water at various siblings in order to make them squeal. Chlorine tasted alright, though.
As far as the sea went... I didn't know, back then, about the various sewage, pollution, dead fish and smelly people that shared my bathing water. I was more naive and, cliche as it is to say, life was easier. I didn't worry so much. I was quite capable of wandering up to random strangers and starting conversations with them. I made friends on the beach that were friends for life... or at least, until the evening and home time, and isn't that almost the same thing at six? All I wanted in the world was an ice cream, and to ride the trolley car up to the top of the cliff rather than have to walk back to the car. I built sand castles, and chased the waves, and ran and squealed and believed my dad really was asleep as I dumped bucket fulls of damp sand all over him. He made me into a mermaid, once, so it was only fair. I was happy, all those summer days.
Now I swim with my mouth closed.
Olives taste like the sea. That strange taste in the back corners of your mouth, salt and wet but happier than tears... that's what olives taste like. They taste like childhood summer days. And that, Sophie m'dear, is why I fancied an olive at five o'clock this morning.
Anyone have any burning questions? About life, the universe, how lightbulbs work, why your teeth fit together at the back? I can't promise I'll know the answer, but by god I'll lie with panache.
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Date: 2004-09-07 08:52 am (UTC)Why does everything in the universe spin? And why aren't there more monkeys?
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Date: 2004-09-07 08:52 am (UTC):-*
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Date: 2004-09-07 08:57 am (UTC)Because Nny is one of the most beautiful, sensitive, and talented creatures that the world has ever seen.
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Date: 2004-09-07 08:59 am (UTC)And I am a sycophant!
Great yay!
:>
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Date: 2004-09-07 09:02 am (UTC)Hmmm...burning questions.
Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?
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Date: 2004-09-07 09:14 am (UTC)From sky blue to indigo and back again, why do my eyes change colour?
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Date: 2004-09-07 11:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-07 01:01 pm (UTC)Every summer, and most Easters we would spend a week camping up there.
One of our favourite past times was Bracken Jumping.
The sides of Welsh Hills/Mountains are steep. And a lot of them are covered in fields of bracken.
If you stand at the top of the field, you can jump into the braken, and roll for a bit. You clear quite a hieght, but the bracken cushions your fall.
Unfortunately, as you get older, you get more aware of rocks, half-decomposed sheep, sheep's skulls, (these hurt when you land on them) and wasps nests. You stop being able to leap so high, and eventually you're too scared to jump at all.
I would give anything to be able to jump with the same abandon I did as a child.
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Date: 2004-09-07 02:06 pm (UTC)I am puzzled by the continual phenomenon of tall guys attaching themselves to really short girls. Nothing against short women, mind you -- but am very tall, myself, and generally get hit on by much shorter guys. Why, oh why, cruel world?
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Date: 2004-09-07 03:31 pm (UTC)Ah, Nny, I love you. This is lovely. I wish you and my Froglet could spend a little time together around an ice cream and talk, because what you say about childhood is so much like her - so much like me, us, what we used to be - that I have goosebumps and tears in my eyes. Thank you.