I have just been outside chopping wood for the fire. Cut up a fair amount of kindling too. I need lots of small pieces to get this old range of mine up to heat. The kindling takes a while to get enough and after a while it gets quite boring and I seem to go into a kind of automaton mode. Sounds a bit dangerous I know but really it’s not. At least not yet, because I haven’t cut any digits off.
It’s when I’m chopping away in this automaton state that my mind wanders off. All sorts of things are idly sought out, thought over for a short time, dismissed and off my mind wanders again until it hits on something worth lingering over. Usually, what with me being a man it stops and investigates when something sexual comes to the fore – did you know that men think about sex every fifteen minutes? This is nonsense of course. It is much more frequent than that.
Let me get back to where I was about my mind wandering. Today it stopped and decided to spend a while thinking about freedom. After a while tossing thoughts here, there and everywhere it decided finally that freedom does not exist.
It. My wandering mind that is decided that freedom is an illusion. Oh, certainly you can escape from many situations, prison, marriage, the nine to five grind to name a few examples. But the truth is you cannot escape from the fact that you exist.
Existence, the fact that you are alive, is a prison. There is no escape. There is no freedom. Not even death because what is after death we cannot know and no one can tell us.
There were other thoughts associated with the illusion of freedom, things like responsibility, the need for a passport when travelling, where you can and cannot go, things like that but luckily, at this point my mind decided there was enough kindling chopped for today and I came indoors and wrote this.
Apparently Kris Kristofferson agrees with you. When he wrote Me And Bobby McGee he "wrote freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose". It is amazing what you mind develops when left to its own devices.
ReplyDeletethank god you have enough kindling, you may have driven yourself mad with those thoughts. lol
ReplyDeleteBriony
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So now cutting wood not only warms you but has created a philosopher.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed amazing how the mind can sift through subjects, sometimes worthless, sometimes useful. I must remember never to go out chopping wood... smiles.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Surrey I used to love taking my dog for a walk in the rain on Wimbledon Common. Many people don't realise that when it's raining it's often dry under the trees, and the tranquility with nobody else around gave me plenty of opportunities to clear my head. Well to have lots of random thoughts too.
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