I wonder? Yes, I really do, I wonder at pretty much everything and it's bloody annoying. Of course, the internet hasn't helped. It used to be that if I wondered something I would have to go to the library and do 'research' or at the very least take down my set of encyclopedias and flick through them. These days I just go to that Google thing, tap in some keywords, and there it is - THE ANSWER - no need for me to wonder at all. It's bloody, bloody, bloody annoying.
In the past, if I couldn't find what I was looking for in books or couldn't be arsed to walk in the rain to the library I'd just wait for my wonder to fade and eventually it would. But I have all the answers now and that leads me to question more and more and somehow (in almost the blink of an eye) I've gone from 'How long is a giraffes neck on average?' to ' why did Modigliani paint necks the way he did?' to 'who first used the term brassneck?'. Sometimes it can take hours of skipping from thought to thought before I can leave it alone - it hurts, it hurts, it hurts.
So what's actually left to wonder about now that I have access to all human knowledge and then some? I wonder what Baltimore looks like? And with just a few clicks on YouTube, I find myself on a virtual tour, no need to visit now, besides it looks pretty boring. How do you find truffles? Well, you need a pig apparently and as I don't have one I'm probably not going truffle hunting today. I do know where to buy a pig close to where I live though, and how to train him to find truffles, and how to cook truffles into a number of excellent truffle dishes (star rated and reviewed) and how to find truffles without a pig or even a dog which can be almost as good as a pig apparently. I even know where best to find truffles in Wales (Pengelli Forest, near Newport, Pembs). Of course, I'm never going truffle hunting but if I want some I can order and pay for them online from trufflehuter.co.uk.
Do you get the point? There's really no need for me to wonder any more. I know everything, if only vicariously and with the aid of a machine. Sometimes this is great, having the world and more at my fingertips is quite a wonder (I'm just off to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna to check out the Breughel's - see you in about an hour), but sometimes I miss not knowing and having to wonder about the wonders. It was kinda wonderful in its own way.
'I wonder?' has become something different altogether. 'I wonder?' really means I will just find out. So if I want to know who starred in a movie or who made the first expresso machine or what was Barry Blue's first hit single and even listen to it ("Dancin' (On A Saturday Night" - No. 2 1973) and as a consequence finding out that Bobby, far from being the flash in the pan bit of nothing like I'd always assumed, has had a very distinguished and prolific musical career and written and produced for Andrea Bocelli, Diana Ross, Celine Dion, The Saturdays, The Wanted, Pixie Lot, and Lyndsey De Paul amongst others. So another illusion shattered and respect duly given, who'd have guessed it?
'I wonder?' has become something different altogether. 'I wonder?' really means I will just find out. So if I want to know who starred in a movie or who made the first expresso machine or what was Barry Blue's first hit single and even listen to it ("Dancin' (On A Saturday Night" - No. 2 1973) and as a consequence finding out that Bobby, far from being the flash in the pan bit of nothing like I'd always assumed, has had a very distinguished and prolific musical career and written and produced for Andrea Bocelli, Diana Ross, Celine Dion, The Saturdays, The Wanted, Pixie Lot, and Lyndsey De Paul amongst others. So another illusion shattered and respect duly given, who'd have guessed it?
So what's left now that I don't have to wonder about very much at all? Well, I find myself wondering about what to wonder about.
Wonderful!
No comments:
Post a Comment