Digging in the dirt. - Modern Cannibal Magazine

I like to be good at my job. It has taken myself longer than many to be proficient, but I strive. I try to get muscle and intellectual memory involved by doing the same things over and over again. Some find these things tedious but Its useful to chip away at these things because I am trying to reach something more important.

Ballerinas practice the same movements over and over thousands of times so when it comes time to perform they can focus on the important elements. Their legs know, their feet know. All relevant arts or sports operate on this plane. They must.

I choose to employ this strategy at work. I do this so my job can be done while thinking about something else. The effects of this are obvious; laughing out loud, smiling, talking out loud, even swearing for no apparent reason. It took a long time for this level of freedom because this job requires focus, but I feel i have achieved my goal.

So what do I do now that I have reached my goal of freedom of moorings of tedium?

We travel to 1979!!

For some reason something forced its way into a synaptic hemisphere and just wouldn’t let go. Footwear has always for some reason played an important part of my initial development. My Mother was sure to point out that the reason why America might fail someday was because of people’s insistence on purchasing faulty shoes. “Make certain they fit properly or you will regret becoming older” she would say as we tried on several hundred pairs of sneakers and boots of course dependent on the season. I remember how fast I could run after slipping sneakers on after wearing heavy boots all winter. Shoes mattered big time. I was always well prepared, but we were monetarily not that well off so that meant that although my footwear met the criteria for structural integrity, they didn’t meet the acceptance criteria for society at large. In 5th grade you were just about to cross that invisible line.

For some reason as I schlepped away at my duties March 09th, 2023, I became transfixed with Ken Willis’s sneakers as he wore them in 5th grade 1979. They made that big of an impact! Not Ken Willis but his sneakers. They were black running sneakers which was unusual for the time. Running sneakers were normal, but black?…no, very unusual. Not just black however; they had lemon yellow inserts inside the white soles. They were perfectly symmetrical. I often though I could run very fast in a set like this. I remember being transfixed. So keyed in that 44 years later they still remain as particles floating in a chamber of my brain. Some locked away thought reanimating at a time of its choosing.

But, that is not where these thoughts ended.

Now it was time for me to interact with this daydream. I wondered; where are these sneakers now?

Is it possible that these sneakers are still on planet earth? Buried underneath feet of earth, consumed by parasitic forces? What is left? Maybe a bit of sole, or just a lace? Maybe they are still in a corner of a basement somewhere? Where are the remnants? Could they be located if one was strident enough? What would that take? What about the sneakers i used to wear? What kind of equipment would i need for this job?

If I were to undertake an expedition like this wouldn’t it be as important as uncovering a pyramid?

To me it might.

Ok not quite that important, but it would be an adventure. An almost impossible voyage to discover a totem that never left you. So important it burrowed and hid. A random access memory ready to deploy at just the right time. I literally have dozens of hours of thought about just this topic.

Thousands of thoughts appear like this every year.

I sometimes think there is something really wrong with me but it is at these times I realise that I am to busy daydreaming to care.

Society is busy in its depressing dissonance but it is our imaginative music that cause our hearts to stir.

Don your sword and cape and prepare to dream.

Cheers to you and yours.