Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Scary Day Blues

Now it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the sixth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the desert springs...

OK, it's nothing as dramatic* as all that. A number of people have made a big deal about the day's numbers, but I haven't thought about this occult combination very much. However, it was an exceedingly unusual day here, with the air menacingly still, a thick, low cloud cover hiding the sun, and uncharacteristicly intense humidity altering the landscape and atmosphere ominously. The birds were mute, the animals invisible, the people nervous.

I went looking for work today. Why has everyone grown younger than me? I felt like a chaperone. The settings were familiar, the people in them as they had always been, but I've been, as if all of a sudden, transformed into a grandfatherly figure, or perhaps a ghost.

However, no one seemed afraid of me, and they were respectful enough. So maybe there's spot for me, off in an obscure corner of some large firm, computing arcane tables of alchemical formulae which it is my assigned task to hand down to the next generation.

*See the opening lines of Chapter One of the King James O.T. Book of Ezekiel

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