Mar 11 - More Things I Think About (When I Think)
By Stefano Blanca Sciacaluga
I haven’t really had much time to think lately, especially because I have a lot of things to think about; and I tend to shut down, get in bed and hope I can solve all my issues during my morning shower. Last October I wrote a bunch of things I had been thinking about and as I mentioned then my morning routine is when I think best, so here are a few more things I’ve thought about probably sometime between 7am and 9am.
1. People in the Southern Hemisphere have a completely different perspective of months.
Here’s one I thought about the other day when I was listening to Aguas de Março. In the Northern Hemisphere, and particularly in Gibraltar, we’re leaving the Winter behind, that time of year associated with jackets, jumpers, scarves, heaters and images of snow storms, flooding and all sorts of weird weather phenomena everywhere. And I don’t know about you, but for me “December” symbolises all of this; but in the Southern Hemisphere, say Brazil for example - the country that inspired the song that inspired this train of thought – December is bang in the middle of their Summer. For them Christmas isn’t all about the Coca Cola polar bears but it’s more like La Caleta en pleno Agosto. Think about it. Those with synaesthesia will enjoy thinking this one through.
2. Pressing the buzzer on the bus.
I was on the bus at the beginning of the week, I don’t take the bus a lot but I enjoy it, especially if I get to sit close to the back. But this time I sat right at the front, and realised there is no buzzer stop button. Now, I’m sure you’ve all experienced it, somebody screaming at the driver from the back of the bus, but I think I’m too embarrassed to even do it from less than a metre away, on the front seat. So I was worried the bus wouldn’t stop where I wanted it to but instantly thought, “what the hell is the buzzer for if the bus stops at every stop anyway?” So is the idea of having it there so the driver knows how many people want to get off or when they want to get off? Because if it’s going to stop everywhere what is the point? In fact, I’ve gone on a couple of bus trips in the past just hoping somebody’s getting off at my stop, when I’m far from the button. I’m sure there must be an explanation for this; so let me know below in the comments section what you think.
3. Dancing in the Street.
I’ve said it for a while: I honestly think humans are the dumbest animals. Yes, we have come this far, we get in dangerous tubes with wings to go far; we’ve made it, baby! I know we’re not the only animals to trip over and fall, I’ve seen my cat losing his balance and sliding across the floor and I recently saw a video of a pug following another dog, jumping over a log, and flipping over and falling on its face. But if there’s one thing I’m sure of is that we’re the only animal that has massive problems with spatial awareness. I’m sure you’ve all experienced it: You’re walking down the street and lock eyes with somebody walking straight at you, and even if you still have three or four seconds until you collide you do nothing about it, get up to half a metre distance and then do a weird dance where you both want to skive each other but your brains are telling you to crash into each other. Bonus dumb thing we do: Somebody steps on your foot and YOU say sorry.
4. The day art became 3D.
I’m sure you’ve all seen cave paintings before; our own Gorham’s Cave has some Neanderthal art. Art has come a long way, we can all agree, but when did we (humans in general) start to see the world in 3D? Have a look at Disgarding Images on Facebook and you will see exactly what I mean. When did we go from that to say Velázquez and friends? Considering we have no photographic proof of what the world was like in 1500s I’m led to believe the world was two-dimensional for a LONG time. Think about it.
5. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it does it make a sound?
And what about if somebody does something strange and nobody sees it? What if somebody does something highly illegal? Or gives you the finger when you have your back turned. The other day I was watching the news and somebody said something along the lines of “the world is worse now than ever”. Yes, we do have extremist fundamentalists wreaking havoc, sexual predators and people who think breaking a glass in somebody’s face is fun. But what about all those things we don’t hear about? About a couple of weeks ago I accidentally hit another car backing up out of a tight spot. So I had a look and although the other car was pretty beat up and couldn’t identify what I had done and hadn’t done I wrote a little note with my details and left it on the wiper. But think of all the people doing hit and runs. Or even worse, all the people breaking all kinds of laws and we know nothing about them. It’s pretty worrying, but it also works the other way around too: Think of all the good people are doing and aren’t getting recognition for. Tying up with what I mentioned earlier, we’ve come a long way, we can know (via the internet) what somebody is doing on the other side of the world in real-time, but we might not know what’s going on next door. Bonus thing to think about: Think of all the times you could have ended up in the background of somebody’s photo and you will NEVER find out.
6. Black Damon
I’ve had to look this up, but there are more than seven billion people on earth, it’s pretty crazy, but the following is even crazier. If you think about genetics (a subject I really know nothing about) and the fact that everybody’s a 50/50 of two other people and there are all sorts of options and ways in which people could look, in the way that two brothers can look completely different and two others can look exactly the same, how crazy is it that Black Damon exists? Yes, that’s right, a black Matt Damon. And there’s probably more than one person that looks exactly like George Clooney, or George W. Say you go to Mexico and find your cousin, in a Mexican version. Or you go for a weekend somewhere in Spain and come home convinced you saw somebody you know in the distance. It makes me think, how many times have you seen somebody you know in the UK, or in Spain and maybe you weren’t seeing him or her, you were just seeing his or her Black Damon. Bonus thing to think about: How about the way anywhere you go you are guaranteed to find a Gibraltarian, and the options are only about 30,000.
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(Top pic: photo by Zane Mañasco/OMG Photophilliac)
