Today I just follow my pen. Let’s see if something comes up as I write.
I stare out the window and inspiration spontaneously appears – a long sweep of green, brown, and gray is disturbed by white and blue. Plastic waste… styrofoam boxes, barrels, containers and filled bags… it all seems neatly scattered on the edge of a ditch – at least, that is how the glass pane through which I watch projects the outside world inside, at a speed of 200 km/h.
The dirt has literally been thrown over the fence and forgotten. It no longer plays a role in the head of the original owner who dumped it there. At the mercy of the elements it has become nature. More natural than deer, in fact. Those are are regulated.
Only the passing train passenger, who has visual access to the back of the fence, may still be captured by this piece of paradoxical natural beauty. For some, it elicits questions, perhaps emotion, maybe even anger.
All this is as transient as the train in which these observations are made. The view is constantly changing and there is so much to marvel at. Was it really garbage? Maybe it was just temporary storage?
Maybe we should feel for the people who are on the inside of the fence. By throwing the garbage over it, they think that the inside becomes more beautiful than the outside. But they know it’s not.
Written on March 28, 2019