Right, so this is a strange one. The YouTube algorithm put in front of me this morning some nonsense reel. It was a short for a film, you were supposed to go and download the app to watch the rest.
The video showed a man and a woman standing close together, in what look like book stacks. He has his hand over her mouth and he whispers something to her in a low voice. What he said was, “Do you want this?”
And she nods her head.
And for some reason I have been locked in on that moment all day.
Finding anything that gives me a thrill is akin to locating a pearl in a mountain of oysters. The image of them both, clearly strangers, clearly abrupt and opportunistic, clearly no emotional connection at all, repeats in my head over and over again.
I made all my appointments today, finished my chores, rested. And still here it is. My head has been writing and rewriting that moment over and over again. My education has taught me that this is a lowering of one’s self, that it is an escalation of a base instinct and therefore best resisted.
Would you be surprised if I told you that has made no difference? Instead, I have wished for just such an encounter, a convenience in a library, a whispered, rushed exchange, that asked nothing of me and satisfied, was thrilling even in its lack of sophistication.
Well. You don’t have to be a genius to see the attraction.
Teenagers aren’t the only ones to be dumb.
How are Things? 