Thursday, January 03, 2008

I should apologise to ants, really

Not quite a fortnight from the solstice and you can see it: three o'clock and the sun is still clearly up - low down, yes, but not quite setting yet. We are winning, it has happened again, light is coming back. The planet keeps turning, light comes back, and maybe this is what matters, really. And as for us puny ants inhabiting the Earth, in spite of the horrors we cause each other, while there are still people in the world there will also be those who want to tear each other apart in love and longing rather than in hate and rage. More of those.

I need to think that is the case.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Me too.

Reading the Signs said...

Yes and amen to that, Anna, but - I do really think you should probably apologise to ants because they don't think of themselves as puny at all. In fact one of my best friends is an ant and it is a well-known fact that they fully expect to inherit the earth when we have all blasted ourselves to Kingdom Come, and jolly hard-working and organised they will be too, team-work being their thing. But I do not think they will want to tear each other apart in love and longing, nor do they embrace each other. So we must needs prevail. Let there be light.

Anonymous said...

Might there be some small space for those who don't wish to tear anyone apart, whatever the intention? The road to Hell, and all that...

R.H. said...

Where dis dame gone?

(cutie cutie)

Montag said...

Absolutely. I agree absolutely.
I came out of my solstitial hibernation long enough to sleepily read your post about giving peace a chance, or give peace to ants...I can't remember which right now.

Anyway, I had some time earlier inadvertently subscribed myself to future comments about a post of yours about the Llama Video.
Recently I received a notice of some comments to you from some people from China, one of whom, Suifeng, seemed to be in the business of selling over-the-counter pharmceuticals to distressed males.

I cut the line to their comments-at least, I think I have.
You do receive some interesting comments, though.

Anonymous said...

Friends, bloggers, countrymen, I've come to bury this blog, not to praise it. No, I'm not going to give up blogging - it just seems like I already have. I don't rightly know what is up but I have left you good people stranded here for weeks on end (at least in the case of housut and Signs - although my apologies go to you, Szxczvzxagman, R.H. and Montag, too, at least you haven't waited and waited and waited). Sorry. It's shite of me and that's about all I can say as there's very little that can be said in my defence - (various snippets of) work yes Miss Dogot yes and the general fucked-upedness of the world yes yes yes, they are all contributory causes for my on-blog silence but not really enough. Anyway, I thought I'd try a bit of grovelling, now where's my title (to paraphrase the exchange between Spike Milligan and The Prince of Wales, and further confuse the issue so that you people would forget how abominably I've been behaving)?

housut, hello. Glad but not surprised you'd be in agreement with me here. Truly sorry to have left you unanswered here for such an age. Hope all is well over at the housut household.

Signs, you of all people would have an ant friend. This does not surprise me one bit. Although I think that your ant mate has aspirations above the anty station, because surely it is the mighty cockroach who will inherit it all once we're gone (someone used to say when (members of) mankind managed to do/cause really horrid things that we should "let the cockroaches have a go now" - I can't remember who it was but they maybe had a point)? And yes, how does the poet say it, "...the anthill's a fine and [something] place, but none, I think, do there embrace" or thereabouts. But all the same - I hereby solemnly apologise not only to you, esteemed blogpal, for leaving you here with your ramblings about ants for such a long while, but also via your antsy pal to all of antkind. Ants, I am sorry. We people are not puny ants. You ants are. Sorry. I'll try not to say that again. (Yes, Signs my dear - light. Or at least a bit of fucking snow. We are having rain storms. In January, a stone's throw from the Arctic Circle, Signs, this is serious. There is a hole in the ozone layer and the world as it should be is leaking out through it. Do something, Signs, because I sure as hell can't think of anything to do, so you are mankind's only hope.)

Szswagier - yes. A small space for those who have no teary-uppy desires can probably be arranged. Not that I am personally in charge of the seating order or the queueing system but I'll see what I can do. And as for the road to Hell - I see what you mean but I have never had a good intention in my life so can't comment (hey, I haven't had bad intentions either. Just, intentions). It's more the road of excess that has been my thing (still looking out for the palace of wisdom. I may have to trundle on a bit).

RH - dis dame's right here. Where else? Hello and thank you also for the sweet comment on the other (bread of angels) thread.

Montag, hello. I'm delighted to know you've also received the delightful emails from the raunchy Suifeng. Man, that girl must really fancy me (I have thought Suifeng to be a girl's name. Correct me if I'm wrong) because she has started to nip over increasingly frequently. I am slightly wondering what's inviting her attentions, but don't to be honest know what to do about her - I don't want to disallow anonymous comments because I believe non-bloggy people have a right to come and [try and sell me viagra and penis-enlarging quackery medication] say hello, too, and I have been told by a reliable source that sometimes if you go to delete the types of comments as Suifeng's love letters to me, they just multiply themselves automatically. Initially I tried to answer them in the same vein I answer (or used to, more like it, as I have been totally crap at it lately, as you'd all know) my other comments but the humour of that wore out a little because they never came back to reply in kind.

But Suifeng and her gang aside, I do receive some very interesting comments. Like yours (and the others', upthread), for instance. I will try to improve my appalling performance and get back to people like I used to.

Okay, off to do my penance. It is lovely to see you all...

xxxxx

Anonymous said...

Oh, Ms Mr, fret not. No need to defend yourself either. It's very nice indeed to see you though. I had just assumed that the months of darkness up there in Helsinki might have induced the kind of lethargy or ennui that you mentioned in one of your December posts.

Either way, I do hope we'll see you again at some point - that's not meant to put any pressure on you, just voicing my thoughts - but only as and when you feel like it. I for one wouldn't want you writing posts just for the sake of going through the motions in order to keep your readers happy. Just come back when you're ready xx

Anonymous said...

Oh, and compared to the lengthy (and quite possibly permanent?) absence of one Ms Melancholy, you've got a long way to go yet ;-)

Reading the Signs said...

Damnation, my dear, I know I am mankind's only hope (and clearly it is only someone with your depth of insight who knows it too) and believe me I have being doing everything in my power. Yesterday I baked chocolate and walnut cookies in an attempt to set the wheels in motion - to put the world to rights. I know you will understand the implications and ramifications of this. Think chaos theory and butterfly wings.

You are doing penance? This is good. Do a bit more for me, will you? May as well cover a multitude of sins while you're about it.

Anna MR said...

Hello and thank you for your supportive words, young housut. Ms Melancholy and I were never formally (or indeed, even informally) introduced although I naturally am aware of her. I didn't know she'd gone quite silent but can sort of see how this sometimes feels like the only way, for whatever reason.

Anyway, I haven't disappeared, just seriously slowed down. Who knows, maybe I will speed up to a round-the-clock blogging status when the sun returns. In the meantime, nice to see you, housut, hope all is well. x

Anna MR said...

What the - ? Signs, I know you are bonkers, of course - it takes one to know one ("I'm mad I am") - but it seems pretty rich even of you to be putting quantum physics and butterfly wings in chocolate-and-walnut cookies. I mean really, Signs - that was cruel overkill, even if it was meant to save the planet (we did get some snow today, though, and even if it is thawing already, it is a step in the right direction. Keep up the good work, Bonker Officer Signs, and get the planet back on tracks to a bright future). Quantum physics, sure, why not, nobody understands it anyway, and those who do, have misunderstood it, as I believe one of the quantum physicists themselves (Wolfgang Pauli, maybe?) has gone on record as saying. Might as well chuck the lot in your dough bowl and give your biccies a piquant flavour (fascinating topic though it is). But did you never stop to actually consider whether the butterfly's wings wouldn't have been ethically the property of the said butterfly - and did the good of the planet really, in a deeply philosophical way, compensate to the butterfly in question the loss of its wings? I mean, was the butterfly consenting? Or are you just doing a utilitarian "greatest good for the greatest number" thingy?

I am a little horrified, Signs. I thought you were a poet, and as such, on the side of the individual and the butterfly. Incidentally, I forgot to apologise about the stumpedness you claim to have felt regarding that three-liner, as well as to thank you for claiming it sounded poetic. So I suppose we are even, then. Farewell, sweet Signs...although I have this feeling I will see you somewhere else, not so far from here, in the not-so-distant future of my not-so-distant past...call it a hunch. Another mwah.

Reading the Signs said...

"although I have this feeling I will see you somewhere else, not so far from here, in the not-so-distant future of my not-so-distant past..."

I am not the brightest button in the box. Just saying. Mwah!

Anna MR said...

Ha. Calm down, Signs, you adorable nutter. Repeat after me: "...this is not a box....I am not button...". Aaaaand again, Signs. That's better.

You're mad, you are. But not to worry, you're amongst your kin and safe here. Mwah!