Friday 23 February 2007

What is it that makes me?

I'm not from Wearside. And I'm not Jack. Yet I am Wearside Jack. What is it that makes me?

Olives. I cannot think of them without the Arabic word coming to mind. With emphasis: I cannot. That is simply unique; and olives, therefore, are unique. Eating them, one [i.e. I] is aware of imbibing goodness. Yet surely imbibing and mastication are bedfellows only in the most tenuously Amazonian of senses? Think for a moment, and it becomes obvious: the olive is the purest distillation of the life force - of the élan vital - and he who consumes the olive will never die.

Returning to our primary question, it seems that I am Wearside Jack not because I am, but because I was both flustered and flumoxed when imposed upon to enter some sort of identifier to proceed towards this curious goal to which a curious stranger had compelled my being to strive. That is: what is is the very first thing that comes into one's mind. Namely, I am an ostrich. Think - but not - never - too much.

Think.

6 comments:

Jack Gander said...

Other Jacks:
Hydraulic Jack; Jack Knife; Jack of Diamonds.
Can you think of any other other Jacks?

Your thoughts concerning olives I find fascinating on a number of levels; what do you think their connection might be to what is known euphemistically as the "Mediterranean Complexion"?

Also, your thoughts on the oil of olives, or olive oil, would doubtless fan the flames of my wonder yet further (c.f. "The Anatomy of Joy").

videodrone said...

The life enhancing qualities of the olive is doubtful. The Greeks are a point in contest alone.

M said...

The oil of olives is to be commended unreservedly. Indeed, no other oil is necessary.

The connexion between complexion and diet exists, of course, but it is too weak to dicate the former on the scale of entire cultures. Much more likely an explanation is that proximity to active volcanoes and darkness of complexion act in direct proportion to one another. We ignore the interaction of biology and geology at our peril.

Perhaps I am not Wearside Jack, but Jack of All Trades?

Jack Gander said...

You're not Jack of anything, and I resent that you'd say you were. Connexion and complexion rhyme. That and other things (volcanoes, etc.) I like. But can you think of any other other Jacks?

Black Jack would be one.

Bic Biros & Moldova said...

Black Jack, he's quite a card.

Jack Gander said...

The Jack of Diamonds is a hard card to play. Y'know?