What a marvellous thought!!!
Must share that…
Or perhaps not.
So where were we?
Or where were we meant to be, Gogo?
Ah, yes.
Avoidance
There are certain foods we avoided as children, even extending into our teens, that we ‘hated’ or avoided. I look back to spinach, watercress and school dinner liver and tapioca (not mixed but perhaps on the same menu -yuk!), as having been repulsive. The full list is now beyond my reach. I do know that a dislike of, or at best indifference to, radishes has never left me.
Nettles
Nettles might form part of another category of foods that I will call masochistic for my own tastes. So, as I write, they drift into my consciousness as plants not to fall into, epitomising hot summer pastures, footpaths and happy butterflies. I know there is something called nettle soup, but I have never tried it. Now, I will have to, having mentioned it. The nettle can be a very attractive garden plant;
…and thistles again
Echinops – the Globe Thistle, gorgeous to look at. I see that Eryngiums are not strictly Thistles. However, their appearance is ‘thistle-ish’!
The Donkey, I suggest, accepts no such fine distinctions, and would happily eat all your Eryngiums, Thistles and Nettles while you disputed its discernment or culinary discretion. The donkey’s distraction from the stated aims and objectives of getting up the side of the ravine, or whatever task you had set for it? Talk to the hoof!
Where is the Lower Greensand? Below the mist, you fool.
The thing is, with the old donkeys, you luvvly pepall, you can lead a donkey so far up the ravine but if s/he decides to stop for nettles you might not be able to get things going at all. Then there is your attitude. I see you are transfixed by some butterflies and there’s a gorgeous view of the early morning mist with just a church spire piercing the lake of grey cloud above the lower greensand. You are living in the moment and have also forgotten where you are heading and why.
Well, that’s me at least.
Surely not! I! Me? The great instigator of my own destiny!
Surely, I can amend the whole thing to suit my mood. Until, of course, I remember what I had been trying to do prior to…
Ah yes, my lucky donkey’s tail.
We had better summarise. Knowing where we have come from recently will surely help us orientate. Memory, yes! I must try to remember everything. Mainly, I must remember to delete, delete. The external hard drives are full of stuff I have just dumped there, just to look at another day, but I know that I do no such thing until the self-loathing reaches 23.5 on the ‘get-your-finger-out’ scale. Good job I have the donkey’s tail. I may ask you to spin me around three times at some point, after all, contradicting previous decrees. ‘Consistency’ remains only a hallowed aspiration. The more I aspire to it, the more it escapes me and, in turn, the more hallowed it becomes.
So, the summary
1. The ritual for the drawing forth of the immaterial bus has been stumbled upon.
2. The absence of lab conditions to compare ‘no-leg scratching’ and other variants on the basic experiment means I can’t sufficiently rule out other causalities for the miraculous appearance of a bus, or buses, corresponding to the strangeness of any one of my many random activities.
3. The allusion to the possession of a totem or token donkey’s tail must be pertinent to the task of providing aforesaid donkey sans-tail with the very item he requires to be reunited with and obtain his wholeness and therefore mine, as, indeed, the problem has become my own.
4. The use of tautologies is an underused vehicle for drawing out (inference), which me and my donkey are determined to make amends for.
5. The vehicle is a vehicle. Wow! This works so well as an idea that I have had to go and have a lie down.
6. The Donkey World Order – this donkey / tail dichotomy has something to it.
7. Am I not a victim and perpetrator of the donkey / tail duality? Yes!
8. Shall I embrace my prison? The one I, daily, swallow the key for.
9. Something about being only partially aware of one’s own duplicity and culpability with the wayward donkey and the inept expectation of the donkey’s tail as we approach the board blindfold; the ‘lacuna’ I continue to tantalise us about.
10. Proximity is not enough.
11. I must have a framework for understanding my role in the framework; the way I am setting the scene for myself and for us, dear reader. I have commenced by exposing my abject failure to set that scene.
12. However, the donkey goes strolling on. He is taking us somewhere, perhaps in circles.
13. I am trusting there is some progress, which may be starting with realising there has been no progress.
Until now! Solid evidence of lack of progress.
Mediator
I consistently come out as a Mediator on the 16 Personalities Test
https://www.16personalities.com/infp-personality
INFP-A / INFP-T
52% introverted 48% Extraverted.
74% Intuitive 26% Observant
61% Feeling 39% Thinking
58% Prospecting (improvising & adapting) 42% Judging.
51% Turbulent 49% Assertive
https://www.16personalities.com/articles/assertive-mediator-infp-a-vs-turbulent-mediator-infp-t
but the fractional erring towards self-criticism is probably right.
There’s something to it.
https://www.16personalities.com/infp-strengths-and-weaknesses
So perhaps it is bloody-mindedness that makes me want to upset everyone; to disappoint. Takes the pressure off, doesn’t it. Of course, in my confession, you might warm to me and expect less of me at the same time. A win-win, surely…
Is this trick something you might benefit from, dear Sojourner. If running a mile, is your choice, of course, of course. A perfectly valid response. Almost laudable. Take these sandwiches.
Next Time, Folks
Is it plain cowardice, trying to keep everyone happy?
(especially when it comes to my menagerie in a hall of mirrors?)