Don't Read...

Sitting on a train down to London, I am surrounded by signs and contraptions on walls declaring “PENALTY FOR IMPROPER USE”, “FOR USE ONLY IN EMERGENCY” & “DON’T PRESS” - Amidst all this discouragement, I still feel these signs and devices beckoning me towards them, wanting to be set off, because despite the warnings of “DON’T PUSH”, all I can read is “PUSH!”. This brought to my attention the attraction all people have  (and i would seem me in particular) to doing exactly what people tell you not to, for the simple reason that, you’ve been told not to. It’s possibly one of the most irrational and idiotic part of human behavior, as for the most part, these warning signs and deterrers are for our own good. This however does not just apply to emergency brakes and fire alarms - it occurred to me that this sort of pattern actually reoccurs consistently through many parts of our lives:

Smoking
Drinking
Never minding the gap
Standing on the edge of the platform
Big red buttons causing the horrible nuclear demise of the planet etc...

...and also, with relationships, whether it is at a sexual, platonic or emotional level. As we roll like balls of blu-tac through the messy office floor of life, we pick up dust and occasionally stick to other blu-tac (this analogy isn’t relevant, but it’s a great visual image). Sometimes the other blu-tacs we stick to (like friends, lovers, family...) become part of us, and make us bigger, stronger, and more adhesive; they also however, bring there own dust, into your ‘blu’ ball of life. However, when we see (...blu-tacs have eyes by the way) other blu-tacs, rolling on the floor, that are covered in more dust than we should or are capable of taking on, whether that dust be the emotional swings of a friends or the chlamydia riddled genitalia of a sexual-partner, most people, continue to take that risk, hoping that joining with such a blu-tac, will somehow prove beneficial. Sometimes it does, leaving you to roll in piece avoiding discarded staples and other such stationary, nevertheless, sometimes it isn’t beneficial, you stop rolling and everything stands still until some other bastard rear ends you (take it either way you want) pushing you off again. What we will always gain from these situations, is experience, whether that be experience in life, work, the bed, anything, it doesn’t matter, it’s experience, and that is why we will always ignore the warning signs in society and take risks. Never underestimate the value of experience, that’s why all the emotional baggage, all the heart-ache, all the fall-outs, they’re worth it in the end because they’ll always be the good memories if it does truly end, and on top of that, you have experience. Something you can’t learn in a class room. 

I am writing this on the train but the wi-fi isn’t working, so you’re probably reading this in the evening at the earliest because I’m stuck in an office all day - fun.

X AJ

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