I
was following the progress of the torch on the 'live' webcam in my office - a hypnotic
watch, a sort of national Mexican wave as the camera pans past cheering crowds that
seem to emerge out of nowhere - to see when the torch was at the top of our
road. I then went to the other side of the building to get a prime view, only
to see the crowd dispersing.
It
took me a few seconds to realise what had happened, so used are we to
authenticating our experiences by looking at a screen. There was a delay on the
webcam and the torch had gone.
I
had missed my once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a flame lit by the sun on Mount Olympus .
I went back to my office and checked my emails.
Mundane
quote for the day: ‘How many people turn on the radio and leave the
room, satisfied with the distant and sufficient noise? Is this absurd? Not in
the least. What is essential is not that one particular person speak and
another hear, but that, with no one in particular speaking and no one in
particular listening, there should nonetheless be speech, and a kind of
undefined promise to communicate, guaranteed by the incessant coming and going
of solitary words.’ - Maurice Blanchot
Reminds me of the time when our kids were little and we spent hours in Portsmouth waiting for one of the vast aircraft carriers to come down the Solent and exit the port. It was a big event, a lot of people were waiting for it. As you do with small kids, we ended up doing various things involving toilets and snacks and stuff and then, suddenly, we realised the whole huge ship had gone past and was steaming out into the channel. Easily done.
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