Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Today's soundtrack: Chuck Berry "You Never Can Tell (C'est La Vie)" ::
I don't usually get into deep, profound issues like existentialism, but darn it, I think about stuff like that some of the time, so why not?
Most of the time when I walk down the road or something, I tend to keep to myself and inside my own head. I look at the path right in front of me and don't really make eye contact with other people or even notice them sometimes. But, every so often I'll be in a look-around-me mood, and look up at the sky, the mountains, the trees, the birds, and take in those around me. It's when I do this that I start to have these weird thoughts about life, the universe and everything.
I'll see some guy I don't know walking his dog, for example. Oh, I'll not just simply see him. I'll look at him walk past, like REALLY look. Practically stare at him without even realizing I'm doing it. Why would someone like me who's so keen to not look people in the eye behave such a way? Well, when I get like this I start to wonder about the people and animals and stuff around me. This guy walking his dog... I'll start thinking along the lines of: this man. He'll know things I'll never know. Never even think about. Things like, what his name is. Where he lives. What his parents' names were. What his job is. Where he lived as a child. Was he ever in love? Did it hurt? Is there someone he misses? Is he lonely? Where is he going right now? Will he die happy? And on and on at the speed of my own thought, which to me feels like it flies by one subject to the next all too quickly.
And that's just about that one man. Then I think about his dog. Then I'll notices them pass by something on the road like a manhole cover or something equally odd and have these weird thoughts about THAT as well. You know, when did that cover get put in place? Has it ever actually been used? How heavy is it? Is it bolted into place or anything? And I'm still walking as this is happening so next thing I know I've spotted someone or something else and off I go again.
This all makes me consider just how apart from everyone and everything else we are. Sure, I could stop that man, start talking to him, maybe get to know him and his life story, but can I really do that for everyone I pass? I would have to live a life several lifetimes in length in order to get to know every single person. Is this why we're all so callous about violence and death relating to other people? Say your best friend were being charged by the police with murder charges. Now, you know your best friend, so deep inside your heart you know they're innocent and stand by them, but everyone else in the room at the trial probably thinks that your friend is dead guilty. But if it were their own best friend on trial, the whole situation would be reversed, wouldn't it? Suddenly, they'd be the ones sure of the accused innocence and you'd be the one convinced of guilt. The same works with random acts of violence. Now let's say you were desperate and going to grab the next passerby, beat them up and take their money. When you grab them you find out it's your cousin. You can't beat up and rob your own cousin, so you let them go and run off. But if it had been a total stranger, no problem to beat them up if you were desperate enough. Once you know someone on a personal level, the way you regard them is different than before, isn't it? The same could probably even be said for places and things to some degree, couldn't it? The movie theater where you took your first date is going to be torn down and you're really bothered by this, but the guy working the wrecking ball has no idea and never seen the building before in his life. I hope you can follow me through what I'm trying to explain. It doesn't even make sense to me some days and I'm the one thinking these darn thoughts.
I guess where I'm going with this is that I simultaneously despise and love everyone and everything. Yes, I'll more often go on about what I don't like about someone or something and wish it were dead or didn't exist, but on some level I realize that there's a side to everything that I don't know about and couldn't possibly understand. Maybe that homeless man on the corner is more than a little crazy and creeps me out, but at one time, maybe even right now, he was somebody's son. He went to kindergarten. Went on bike rides with the cute girl next door every Saturday. Had a beagle that would run along side him and lick his face. He'd help his mother go to church on Sundays even when she was too ill to walk on her own. Saw his best friend get blown up during Operation: Desert Storm. Was told he'd never walk again after the explosion. He showed them all they were wrong, but his wife still left him anyway. His son was hit by a drunk driver and died at the age of seventeen. Maybe. Just maybe. And it's because of that that I do indeed care about everyone on some level. Because you never know, and there's no way too look closer at everyone.
William (hard thinker or weirdo freak?)
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