Thursday 5 June 2008

Two Ducks

Remember this album from 1998 - Fatboy Slim's You've Come a Long Way, Baby? The cheeseburger eater with a cigarette in his hand, his watchband tight around his wrist. The stretch of highway beneath him. The traffic lights to one side. 

Aah, the glory of the civilised. Look how far we've come indeed.

It was this cover that came to mind this morning as I walked past a creek with two ducks swimming in it. They paid me no mind as I stopped to admire them quietly going about their breakfast forage. 

All of a sudden I found myself crying, begging forgiveness of these two creatures for what we have done to the Earth, for how far we have strayed from what's most vital. I am not an animist or a pantheist, I am just acutely aware of how entangled we have become inside our civilised praxis: like a duck with its neck caught in a plastic bag.

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