How fragile we are

I may have used that line before (and of course it wasn't mine to start with), but it keeps coming back to me. Not just in our bodies, although those too: I am more thinking of the world at large.

I have an increasing fascination with the 'built environment', as it is called in the regeneration business. Things may look shiny and new when you build them / instal them / extend them / replace them, but it's all on the surface. Undo a few screws, take off a few bits of casing or some cladding, and the dirty innards appear.

And unlike the cathedrals of yesteryear, not much of it will last long. Consumer culture has some obscene aspects. For years I've wished (on and off) that I could wander in the past, see what the world looked like before there were cars or electricity or millions and billions of people. But I'm beginning to wish I could wander in the future too, see what post industrial meltdown looks like. Will we sort it out before it's too late?

Pensive times. But on the bright side, I am now on the first page of Google hits for joella, just after the story of the first person ever to get their sex changed on their birth certificate. Result.

joella