Bookmark #811

Today, I could think of one thing and one thing only: how the world comes together every day. I walked down the street this evening and saw the grocer arrange the fruits in a particular pattern. Of course, he could chuck them in baskets, and they would sell still, but he takes his time, moment after moment, sale after sale, day after day, to find harmony in it. I do not know why he does this, and I would not presume to know why anyone does what they do. To fail to acknowledge it, though, would be a mistake more grave than presumption. And all I could think was the world at large, of how every life is infinitely more complex than I could imagine, that I could never get it right even if I tried my best to describe it. We can only observe parts and make sentences out of them. A life is larger than a few adjectives.

And today, all I could think about was these other lives: of how people who may not have done right by others still get favourable endings to their tables so long as they allow goodness in, of how random the lottery is to happiness, and how the train to joy is unpredictable, and how it makes stops you could not have known, and how often it breaks down in the middle, and yet, bills get paid and processed, tea and coffee continue to be served, the beer keeps pouring, shoes continue selling, offices fill with people and empty, computers and laptops are turned on, strangers working for each other for all time, always. The world, despite each one of its faults (of which there are many), is a beautiful experiment that continues to go on and on.

And today, all I could think about was how those whose tongues slither in shifty hyperbole sell us the snake oil of greater heights or larger purpose, but, I reckon, a cashier who sits day in and day out at a bank, regardless of why they do so, has more meaning than any guru telling you to unlock your potential, and there is no greater height you can reach than bending down to pick something up and hand it to the stranger who dropped it.

Today, I could think of one thing and one thing only: that the planet may spin on its own, but this grand collaboration makes the world go round.

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