In Pitch Dark I go Walking in Your Landscape

He walked through the alley, ruminating over the elongated lampshades surrounding each light shrouded in freezing, grey fog. He thought about dying.  The fog submerged and stifled the traditional morbidity, which typically surrounds the subject.  Approaching the bridge, the Thames stared back at him through the fog like a featureless rift in time.  His eyes sought something, anything discernible.  A ripple, a wave, a fold, a line, anything to which his eyes could hold.  Nothing. Unintimidated he set foot on the bridge unable to look away from the void.  Past experience told him there was a river down there.  

Lyrics echoed in his mind.  "Our bodies floating down the muddy river."  

"A new year," he thought.  "Get in shape, save money, set goals, go to church, kick bad habits."  A wry smile dismissed the cliches into the abyss below.  All but one.  He peered through the fog across the bridge.  Blackness.  The curvature of the bridge led to the afterlife.  To the End.  To the Silent.  Perception and interpretation extend only so far, until there is Nothing.  Did the start of the bridge necessitate the end?  

The fog thickened.  He had walked the bridge many times, but never in such weather.  He knew the bridge carried those who would traverse it carefully and securely to the other side.  He knew if the fog dissipated, he would be able to see a breathtaking cathedral.  "Bad habits," he thought. Habit harbors comfort.  Comfort repels growth.  What could be more habitual than unexamined consciousness?  Self reflection is a uniquely human trait - even more, uniquely ignored.  

Upon his return home, he found his phone ringing.  He fumbled for the light, tried to release himself from the fog and answered.

"Were you asleep?" a female voice on the other end asked.

Sitting and wiping his eyes he ventured, "... yeah, sort of."

Happy New Year everyone.  Rerum Causae is back up and running again.  Lastly, check out this photo.  It is an incredible 360 degree view from atop St. Paul's Cathedral.  Keep in mind there is a statute to this day that no building within a certain radius of the cathedral can be taller than it.  Pretty cool.  I tried to upload a version, highlighting the window of my place, but the file is just too large.  Instead, this post will include a super fun activity entitled "Find Mark's window!"  Here's what you do.  1)  Make sure the photo is enlarged.  2)  Find the Tate Modern (ooo where could it be!?)  3)  Look to the top left of the building to find the words "Tate Modern Collection"  4)  Follow the words to the left and you'll run into a building behind the Tate (my hall of residence!)  5)  Count 3 windows from the lower left corner of the "T" in "Tate Modern Collection"  6)  Revel in the possibility that you found me before someone else.  7)  Continue from now on to do everything I tell you to do, you are now in my power.  Wasn't that fun?