Sunday 10th November

Those are the words of Paul Simon, and it reminds me of the important things in life, or actually of those that aren’t so important at all, but which take up so much of our time.  And yes, everything put together sooner or later falls apart.  Every object made by man is crumbling.  Inexorably, and before our very eyes.  Did the Pharaohs who built their magnificent pyramids ever expect them to be crumbling and flaking and the backdrop to millions of tourist Instagrams?  Even precious metals and diamonds are slowly losing atoms and dissolving into thin air.  I can remember watching with amazement back in the early eighties ‘Tomorrow’s World’ and the first sight of a CD.  Indestructible, they told us, unscratchable, they will last forever….or almost, was the promise.  I have Vinyl and Cassettes in far better shape than the cruddy little plastic astifacts, which even so, still amaze me.  And none of them will last too much longer either.  How about digital?  Surely that will last.  Well, if you don’t accidentally delete it first, and as long as you still have the technology to unravel its binary code in theory digital should last forever.  But these are only things, and none of them really matter.  Sooner or later everything put together falls apart.

Paul was singing about relationships, not things.  And in many ways these are the most fragile and breakable of all.  How many people have you loved with such an intensity that life without them, the very thought was unimaginable.  And now they are off with someone else, as are you of course, and who knows, maybe these new connections will also fall apart.  Or maybe you will be lucky and only death will part you.  And maybe that is the hardest falling apart we may all face.   Your children, once cuddled and cherished so dearly are now off and running around the world on their own, with nary a backward glance.  The little thrill when you see them those few times a year soon dissolves into routine.  And at parting you both say how lovely it was to see each other, and mean it.  But then they are gone again, and another close relationship is drifting ever further from shore.

But don’t be depressed.  This is life.  The slow entropy of the Universe affects us all.  Maybe that is partly why I write.  So that something remains, for how long doesn’t really matter, but these words are now out there forever, or for as long as there are devices to read them before they too fall apart.   Keep smiling.