21 NOV    2008

reading the first autumn meditation of du fu in november 2008 while watching time lapse video of fall 04 and thinking about the end of the world

for a long time we heard about nuclear catastrophe in which this planet would be rendered uninhabitable for people. this absurd result would be the work of great buffoons like ronald reagan and his counterparts. now for some time we have been hearing about a more or less inevitable process of deterioration. on the day Barack Obama announced a sea change in US policy on climate change, we felt like a patient who hears of a new treatment devised by a brilliant physician. a few days later you are sick as a dog with a lump in your throat and your left arm partly paralysed. the figures you have been hearing are about 50 percent species destruction by the time the philosophy club is 50. this is a so called best case scenario. maybe this is why simon is undergoing all these tests. acutely attuned to the spirit of these times, his instincts tell him to monitor the accelerated decay of his surroundings, beginning, as they say, at home. is it a rough hard lump? or smooth and rubbery. acutely aware of a leaf shaking or a bird that flies in to the half bare apple tree and shifts slightly sideways, you cross your hands, unable to convey your distraction. the stove has burned down and you're feeling cold