19 november

Let’s circle back.

What we’re seeing from here -- as if this is some commentary on what’s going on, from a booth or a sideline, which of course it is -- is a story struggling to unfold. There are characters, sure, although some of them are imaginary and not all of them have names. Is this important to you? There are plenty of people in your daily live who have no names. That is, they have names, but you don’t know what they are. Think about your day. Today, you got up, went to the coffee shop you normally go to on this day, and saw some people you normally see. There’s the barista who’s got short dark hair and an entertaining moustache. He wears an apron that looks like it was made for leatherworking, not latte art. (Are there aprons made for latte art? Unclear at this time.) There’s the customer who’s unusually specific about his orders, wears a football scarf of the variety not seen in the US, as this is not a sport even remotely referred to as football in the US, which many of us are slowly growing to realize, despite the absurdly literal and accurate name matching the sport to the primary body part involved. He hovers awkwardly, even from a seated position, making you feel like you are in the wrong seat and should get out of the way, even though you are sitting down and the only thing you could do to get out of the way is to leave. Really. He’s very polite, but discomforting. A word? Fair enough. There’s the owner’s daughter, short and efficient. She lifts giant -- what? coffee holders? How hard it is to know the right word for everything! -- containers effortlessly, as if she’s been doing this her whole life, been training for this forever. Has she? What’s her name? She doesn’t look like her father. Is she adopted? You’ve never seen her mother -- anything is possible. Why are you in their business anyway? This is their business. Literally, in the real sense. The literal sense. Returning to the point: You don’t know the name of any of these people, and they’re in your own life. Why should you have to know the names of the people in this book? Stay calm.