Monday 1 November 2010

When all's said and done, it's just a walk.

My problem is, I have too many wandering thoughts.

A few hundred years ago, in one of my other lives, I sat in on a meeting in a plush office in Jerusalem. Really! I did! We were interviewing the owner of a business who was rich and important. I cannot for the life of me remember his name or anything, apart from the fact that we were told he was rich and important and dynamic. And he wore blue denim jeans.

No one mentioned the jeans, but I thought they said a lot about everything. They might be saying, See how I disregard my wealth and status. I am merely an ordinary man going about my daily work. Then he might have expected everyone to think he was more important than ever.

But his jeans might have been saying, My mind cannot be consumed by trivial matters. My mind is on much more important matters than how I dress. He could then expect everyone to know how he thought big, important thoughts.

His jeans could also have been saying, Look at me! Youthful! Energetic! Dynamic! He would want everyone to think, he could not get out of bed in the morning and put on a pair of trousers. See how much time it took me to express that thought about trousers? Jeans. Youthful. Energetic. Dynamic.

He was also fast talking and opinionated, which seemed to fit his ordinary man, big-thinking, dynamic, jeans-wearing persona.

Anyway, he was asked how he turned a one-shekel business into a multi-million dollar organisation. To which he shouted FOCUS.

I mean he really did shout it. Like an order. Then he kept on shouting it and slapping his hand on the table till the tea cups rattled. I can't remember who spoke then, or what was said next, but I think it involved a nervous laugh. Maybe we worried we were being reprimanded for asking what he thought was a foolish question. Or maybe by that one word we were being reminded that we were in the presence of a rich and important person. You can know wealth and status by firm instruction. You can know it by the hand slap on the table. You can know it by the rattling tea cups. And by the jeans. These are signifiers.

I am reminded of that today when we take a walk on the island. It's not very important and it didn't make me wealthy. There is only one road for us to travel there and back. But I can think of two dozen different things to say about it, and ten different ways of writing it down.

My problem is that I have too many wandering thoughts, and not enough focus. That's why I am not rich and important. In fact, I spill think all over the place, so far and wide, I probably never succeed at anything at all. Maybe I should try wearing jeans.

Here is the walk. Make of it what you will.















3 comments:

sharon said...

That's a lovely walk, regardless of focus ;-)

For what it's worth I wear jeans nearly every day and can't say they have done anything to improve my focus? Perhaps I have the wrong brand...

Sam said...

Well, your spill thinking makes for interesting reading, so who needs focus?

And my jeans must be too WIDE to help with good focus. They're a nice dark blue, but that doesn't seem to be a moneymaker.

Nice walk, by the way :-)

Kelly said...

You are an artist.