Having worked in the bookshop for seven months I haven't exactly become blasé about books but...there's a pile on the chair, just dropped off and needing to be shelved...I leave them there for a while...I look at them and instead of seeing books begin to see no more than a pile of neatly-bound paper...but aren't books supposed to be...magical? Spiritual? Alluring? Yes, yes, I know, but only having worked in a bookshop would you understand an encroaching...ennui...a...listless (?) attitude of the Just Books Mind which renders thinking close to 'familiarity breeds contempt' but not quite since I have not turned from book-lover to hater...only...yes, I do kick them around sometimes (ha-ha!) but only those I consider unworthy of careful treatment.
I would never, for instance, kick a classic Penguin, of course. I throw books into a place on the floor (on top of others) relating to the category above when someone is standing in the way of me slotting them in - and I laugh to myself at the reaction of customers who may be startled by a book landing near them or disgusted, perhaps, at my treatment of precious books.
This being a quiet time of year in all shops, presumably, especially mid-week, which is when I'm working, I draw to keep myself occupied. I have behind the counter pens, paper, Pritt Stick, a ruler and stencil with circles. People insist on interrupting the creation of artistic masterpieces! But I always get to finish. Here's one I made on Monday...
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| RTomens, 2022 |
Whilst locking up the bike at the market this morning I'm passed by joggers, of course. They're always about around the market. The early ones have no human obstacles to get around. Later, when the place is busy, the joggers must navigate their course like downhill skiers swerving around poles. Sometimes they have to stop and one can almost see the steam coming out of their ears as they do so.
I thought more about joggers as I locked up. Why do they annoy me? Is it simply because I'm not one of the lycra-clad breed of fitness fanatics? A middle-management pastime - bah! But I suppose middle-management types are as necessary as company directors and the minions. I think of David Byrne 'running' in the Road To Nowhere video because joggers, whilst going 'somewhere' are at the same time going 'nowhere' because the primary goal is just to run, not to reach a point.
So we come to the treadmill-of-life theory. But David, we can't all be creatively successful to the point of considerable financial gain! Most of us just have to Work. To pay the bills. Once upon a time I would have sneered at those 'going nowhere' as if I was going somewhere by being on the dole. Yes, I've lived the Drop Out life but since then I've realised that the benefits of Working outweigh being wilfully unemployed. Only, mind you, if you have the balance right. Yes, that old Work/Life balance...the kind of thing my former employers used to bang on about whilst middle-management types would definitely not be happy with you should you opt for Life over Work when Work needed doing to meet a deadline! Some people are better cut out for Work than others. Some people are ambitious. They manage a successful career...and still make time to go jogging...
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