You enter the building, your nostrils already stinging with the scent of smoke. Your eyes sting, and for a second you struggle with the decision you've made of running into a burning building.
But there is a very good reason. You run towards the reason you'd be willing to risk your life. And suddenly you stop. There it is.
It's that old vinyl of Magical Mystery Tour. Next to it is your copy of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Below it, your copy of Vogue serving as a book mark for the New Yorker. All of it just as flammable as your favorite shirt with the stain from the restaurant you've spent countless hours (and dollars) at, which is strewn on the ground.
To save this? That's why you ran in?
Taking a stand back from that, let's look on this phenomenon of people running into burning warehouses to save objects. Let's not judge and call them materialists. Let's just say that they took Kennick too seriously. Run into a burning warehouse and save the art, he says. You do and are surprised to find that you have no idea what to really save. The Brillo Boxes are looking mighty artsy today, though Andy Warhol could have just been pulling your leg.
You'll just know, Kennick says. You'll know what to save. Right.
Well, that's just it. You can't just know what's important to you, even if it is being rapidly consumed by flames. Hate to break it to Kennick, but time is an inconsistent bitch. What's important today might not be important tomorrow, but dammit it sure seemed like it would be.
One things certain though: When there's nothing left to burn, you sure as hell better learn to set yourself on fire.
1 comment:
I'm very curious to see where this goes. Great idea, Anna. I really like the header picture, too. Did you take it?
As for the story, a few great truths in there, to be sure. I wonder what it takes, to determine unfettered importance. What event lets you know for certain that something has meaning and necessity? It's like that news story I recently heard where this woman got herself killed just so that the robber wouldn't take her car because her two-year old son was inside.
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