We've all got that one friend who we can let loose our crazy side with and they will unquestioningly accept it, no judgements attached. Whether it's goofing around or playing an extreme version of 'If you had to...' and they will laugh at the disgustingly truthful answers you come out with which would otherwise raise the eyebrows of any social etiquette abiding person if they over heard you. We like to know people accept our freaky side, or at least feel relief knowing there are other social deviants out there. Birds of a feather and all that.
I was wonderfully and unexpectedly enlightened to the full extent of one of my good friends thought process this past weekend. It shed a whole new light on what goes on inside their head and I loved it. All thanks to this slightly surreal scene:
I was wonderfully and unexpectedly enlightened to the full extent of one of my good friends thought process this past weekend. It shed a whole new light on what goes on inside their head and I loved it. All thanks to this slightly surreal scene:
We had decided to hop on a train to North Berwick for a relaxing day in the sunshine while having fun furring our arteries with fish and chips, cookies and ice cream. The beach was quiet and I was taking pictures of the textures in the sand that had been left by the receding tide when I came across a shoe that was sole up in the sand. I was in curious mood and pointed it out to my friend by reaching down and was just about to turn to turn it over to inspect it, when they almost shouted "No! Don't touch it!" to which I replied, hand hovering over the suddenly potentially harmful and soggy shoe "Why?" Now, I wish I had been the originator of the following disturbingly brilliant statement:
"Because there might be a body attached."
Now, most people I know would have asked my friend if he was ok and state that he would need to talk to somebody about this irrational fear of sand lurking bodies. I was simply taken aback, firstly by such a vivid imagination and secondly it was a contagious and intriguing thought. What if there was a body attached? Just hovering there, stuck, preserved in the sand like a peat bog body from one of Seamus Heaney's poems. I genuinely wanted to roll with this. Neither of us can prove nor disprove it being there at this point in time, unless I attempt to dig the abandoned footwear up (as it was sunken into the sand) By this point, all common sense flew out the window, I was fully drawn into this macabre superposition scenario. Both of us were starring with all our attention focused on the shoe, muttering our ideas on our impromptu and clearly bonkers thought experiment.
Any passers by would have definitely thought us both slightly irregular, crouched over a tatty shoe, laughing and pointing. Maybe in their head they instantly cast us to the fringes of society for exhibiting a weird affinity for dirty shoes. Who knows. In the end, we both heartily agreed to not turn the shoe over. I guess we didn't want the thought experiment to ever end. So, if you find yourself walking along the beach at North Berwick and come across the said shoe, be a darling and leave it be. I know you will never look at a battered and cast of shoe on beach the same again.
Now for some cognition cleansing pictures, to wipe all morbid thoughts away:
"Because there might be a body attached."
Now, most people I know would have asked my friend if he was ok and state that he would need to talk to somebody about this irrational fear of sand lurking bodies. I was simply taken aback, firstly by such a vivid imagination and secondly it was a contagious and intriguing thought. What if there was a body attached? Just hovering there, stuck, preserved in the sand like a peat bog body from one of Seamus Heaney's poems. I genuinely wanted to roll with this. Neither of us can prove nor disprove it being there at this point in time, unless I attempt to dig the abandoned footwear up (as it was sunken into the sand) By this point, all common sense flew out the window, I was fully drawn into this macabre superposition scenario. Both of us were starring with all our attention focused on the shoe, muttering our ideas on our impromptu and clearly bonkers thought experiment.
Any passers by would have definitely thought us both slightly irregular, crouched over a tatty shoe, laughing and pointing. Maybe in their head they instantly cast us to the fringes of society for exhibiting a weird affinity for dirty shoes. Who knows. In the end, we both heartily agreed to not turn the shoe over. I guess we didn't want the thought experiment to ever end. So, if you find yourself walking along the beach at North Berwick and come across the said shoe, be a darling and leave it be. I know you will never look at a battered and cast of shoe on beach the same again.
Now for some cognition cleansing pictures, to wipe all morbid thoughts away:
Have a spiffing day!