MEMEHUNTER

Gorecki

So this is the idea:

You live in a block of flats, some floors up and are faced with an insurmountable problem. Could be work related, could be something personal, the details don't matter, but this problem is so huge you can't stop worrying about it, and it's causing you stress, and you can't see a solution.

So. You go down the road to your farmer friend, and you borrow his horse. You may need some carrots or sugar lumps for the next bit, but you lead the horse back to your flats, and lead him gently up the stairs to your floor. You give him a reassuring pat, and go back in to your flat. And you wait.

The thing about horses is that the way their legs work means that, while going up stairs is not a problem for them, they find going down stairs nigh on impossible. So when you go outside again to see what all the commotion is about, you will find your neighbours realising that there's a horse on the landing and no apparent way to remove it. Joining in the discussion, you will find that your own particular dilemma pales in comparison to the sheer logistic problems you and your neighbours face trying to move a horse.

And this is the fact:

There is less than 0.1% genetic difference between any two humans on this planet. We are over 99.9% identical.

Do you see?

Looking around myself, I can see that I have quite a lot of friends. My default position is to like people; I find active dislike of someone hard to maintain. I'm not naive. I know there are untrustworthy people out there, but I've found that if you don't bother people like that, they tend not to bother you. In my early days, I gave a great deal of myself to people and didn't always get much back. I learned, through experience mainly, that people who don't give anything back to a friendship ultimately do not care at all if you stop investing. As a consequence, not only do I have quite a lot of friends, but the vast majority of them are great. I consider myself lucky in this regard.

I'm sitting in work at the moment. I'm meant to be jigging html around so that we can start experiments on Monday. Instead I'm trying to work out how to phrase what I'm trying to say.

It's not my style to play games with people, and I have a mild obsession with being "genuine" (which, psychologists in other fields than mine tell me, is consistent with the rest of my personality). I have an advanced sense of humour and am not easily rattled.

I've had great times with the people I know, and have great memories associated with each one of them. Whether that's gorging on roast chicken and dips and watching movies, shocking our systems diving in to the North Sea, listening to tracks given to me on repeat for hours (days), falling asleep together listening to music, reading poetry while playing bongos or just getting drunk and stupid. And the best thing about it is, that there's plenty more to come.

I've been radiating affection for various friends over the past couple of days and I think it has something to do with knowing that no matter what happens, my friends know that at any given moment a horse could appear on the landing.

And (as Gabriel rolls on to my itunes) it seems that in the mean time, there's plenty of hugs to keep us busy.

posted by Memehunter @ 3:43 PM