Into the unknown...

I seen to have had no words of late. Whilst my travels brought about blog after blog after blog, my time in London has ceased that trend. Somewhat like a kinetic energy that powers a lightbulb, it appears my travels powered my words, and now that I have been static for 3 months, no words have come forth. Well, very few at least. One thing is for sure, I haven't stopped thinking about my time away. In fact, recently I've been analysing it from a somewhat different perspective. That of someone who has been home a few months now, looking back to a time that is still relatively recent, and yet seems so far away. I've come to realise that I feel spiritually very different to before I left. I know, that sounds terribly wanky and pretentious. I'm wincing now looking back at it. Spiritually. What does that mean? I'm not sure I even know. I feel I see everyone in a different light. Us. People. Humans. Mankind. The World. Society. The Human Race. Animals. Because ultimately, we're all animals. We just happen to be the most intelligent of the animals. At our peak, we create the most amazing things. We invent things. We design things. We write the most wonderful words. Create the most wonderful art. Produce fantastic films. Direct amazing plays. Write the most beautiful music. But at our most primal, we kill. We rape. We hurt others. We hurt ourselves. We do the most savage of things, but with a knowledge and intelligence that other animals don't have. Other animals kill to survive. We kill to make a point. To feel powerful. To control others.

I've just finished reading the booking Touching the Void, and subsequently watched the film. In short, and without giving too much away, it's the story of two English mountaineers, Joe Simpson & Simon Yates, attempting to climb the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. Their disastrous descent nearly (and probably should have) killed them. It focuses around Simpson's fall in which he breaks a leg, and then Yates' attempt to lower him down the ice cliff using 300 feet of rope, then climbing down the 300 feet himself, and continuing the process. They're both descending into the unknown. No idea what is below them, trying to save themselves. Yates ends up lowering his partner off the cliff edge, into nothingness, leaving him hanging there. I won't say anymore incase you want to read the book or watch the film. So why am I telling you this? Because I feel a bit like that right now. Only I play both roles. I'm lowering myself, down into the unknown. Into the abyss. Over the edge. Only if I fall off, I take myself with me. And if I drop myself, I take myself with me. And if I cut the rope, it's me who falls.

And if this was a film, this is the point the camera would zoom out, leaving you in suspense, waiting to see what happens next...