Tuesday 24 February 2009

Coyote in the Beach

In the future looking backwards, in the photo albums, this will be the rose period.
The glow period. Early.

Thinking about the nature of honesty, and secrets. We know we can't say absolutely anything to anyone. For the sake of peaceful relations. For the sake of propriety, for privacy. We can omit our disagreements, our tactlessness. We can stay silent.

How far does this go? Could you have a long relationship friendship with someone secretly disagreeing with decisions they make always? What about their haircut? What about something vital? Could we silently allow? Forever?

And the other person, would they want their friend, their intimate as a friend without knowing their strong opinions good or bad? Would they be happier not knowing? Would they rather be friends with you (as a doll)?

It's like Susan Sontag's idea of (x). It's very x-y. Secret personalities. The answer of course, I think is that we only become close to people whose dark and secret opinions match our dark and secret own. Or the ones whom we can't offend.

The other relations in our lives, largely acquaintances, maybe relatives see our x-ish personality. X, the scourge.

......

In Toronto right now there is a coyote loose in the beach. He killed a chihuahua. Newspaper headlines announce that the city is now hunting him. Bureaucrats are hunting the hunter. I don't think it's fair. While he killed someone's pet, to him it was just a bug, a squirrel. Now I imagine the circle is closing in on said coyote, in a shrinking habitat, and a shrinking city.