Day in the City

"The city" has meant for my whole life to my whole family Kitchener-Waterloo. "Hey I'm going to the city, need anything?" "Oh yah, pick up a bottle of degreaser at the mall."
And today I spent from 11 am till 7 pm there by myself. It was nice to not have any sort of constraint. I mostly chilled at the Kitchener Public Liabrary, Williams, and Tim Hortons, but I also took advantage of the nice breeze and pleasant chillyness and walked a lot.
One thing sticks particular in my mind.
I was thinking about G.K. Chesterton, and his theory that if we looked at the world the way we would a doll's house, it would hold so much more fascination. You know how it's sooooo cooool when a model city has little mailboxes and iron fences around the wee houses and there are itty bitty plants with bright plastic flowers, all looking so foreign and romantic from your perspective. Today there was a yellow brick house. It had a pretty black fence around the front, and a little veranda, and on either side of the walk there were these pots with bright red germaniums in them. And I was just.... attracted to it. It was for lease. I'm fortunate I haven't got any sort of money, because I would have bought it right there. It's very stuck in my mind. The red germaniums. I think G.K. Chesterton and I talked in a former life, because he says well what I mean. Especially his book "Manalive".

Anyhow, I also went to a performance of Mozart's Requiem by a friend's choir this evening. He died before finishing it eh? How ironic. But it's sooooooo beautiful. Two movements stick especially in my mind. "Dies Irae" (meaning day of anger) gave me shivers. It's like the fiery anger judgement part of death. Then then the "Lacrimosa", which I have always loved. The movement of tears. The grief part of death, the sadness of it. I wonder what Mozart thought as he was writing it. He knew it was his masterpiece, and he also knew he was writing it for himself. His assistant finished it. Mozart was genius incarnate. He composed "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" (well the tune of it) when he was like 4.

And then a brief gallumph with the guys that involved getting covertly onto the KW transit system and re-meeting a guy from camp that totally didn't remember me. Decent. I'm still pretty proud of how I went from Guelph to Kitchener to Waterloo to Elmira without having a car or my parents drive me :D. And that I took advantage of walking time.