Hi there, beloved readers... You surely noticed how nice was the weather yesterday... Not a cloud, bright blue sky... And for me, a distinguished Londoner accostumed to rain and mist, was a perfect excuse for going outside, just for loitering about the streets... Don't misunderstand me... I like rain and mist... It's like feeling home... But this is quite good also...
So, while walking around I heard a noise, a particular musical noise I haven't heard for a long long time... I heard a Sharpener's whistle. You'll most probably know what I'm talking about! A Sharpener is a person who sharpens knives (not mines...) in the streets with a machine connected to his/her motorcycle axis... As I said, I haven't seen one of those for a long time... And I started thinking about it... People don't sharpen their knives of scissors anymore... They throw them and buy new ones... Easy stuff... Maybe some years ago, when people hadn't much money, they used to do that, but not anymore... And so, Sharpener's are disappearing... We can apply the same chain reasoning for another classical crafts, like Cobblers or some Watchmakers...
It's something related to our nowadays mentality... We think we can waste our money buying new stuff, not repairing old stuff... They don't remember how their grandparents lived... Luckily, I can... And RIP Van Winkle surely can, too... I remember watching an old man after the Spanish Civil War taking the rind off a potato... and I must say, he seemed to be "shaving" the potato, trying not to waste any comestible part of that tuber... So, things have changed since then...
But people don't notice changes... just like we don't notice how Earth rotates... Think about a vase in a corner of a table, being moved very slowly to another corner... It's difficult to notice the movement until you realize how far is the vase from its starting spot... No movement but different spots.
But if you stop thinking for a while you surely will notice how all has changed since you were a child... How some things you simply accepted as part of a static reality are becoming obsolete... "Video killed the radio star", singed the Buggles back in the 70's... But... wasn't video killed by DVD? And now... Bluray's sharpening his knives against dvd's...
So... Our world's built over the ashes of past worlds... Worlds that seemed to be quite static for those who lived in that ages... Ironic! Nothing lasts forever, my friends...
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1 comment:
This is a wonderful contribution and "food for thought" as well. I'm not as old as you or RIP are and yet I still remember going down the stairs of my childhood house, with either my grandmother's scissors or my mother's knife in hand, to reach the sharpener.
Here are a few language comments to carefully look at:
-You surely noticed how nice the weather WAS (WO ) yesterday
-who sharpens knives (not MINE...) in the streets
-EVEN THOUGH "COMESTIBLE" IS CORRECT, CONSIDER USING "EDIBLE" TOO.
-those who lived in THOSE ages… (CAREFUL, YOU REPEATEDLY MAKE THIS AGREEMENT MISTAKE!)
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