A blog post about an expired credit card? Where could be the sensuality in such an endeavour? Blog of the Senses. Money as such is unsensual. At most it has a haptic quality. It actually HAS a lot of haptic aspects. Bills, coins. How vain and ephemeral they are. Mindtwisters of humanity. Yet fascinating. Young people panicked when the Euro was introduced in Austria. They had to multiply/divide by 13,76. Horror ensued. Not in my grandma’s household. She pragmatically took her notebook and said: “Whenever the currency changes, I prepare a little list with prices of things I usually buy and/or have to pay in order to get used to the new numbers.” She smiled a bit I think to remember. For her it was the 5th currency she had lived to see. I don’t think she ever owned a credit card in her life. Sweden is abolishing cash now, and other countries will follow for sure, giving way to banks to charge us negative interest (since we can’t take out all our “cash” from their accounts anymore and thus force them to play capitalism to our benefit …. enfin. Whom do I want to fool. We live in the best of all possible worlds, we know that much. Bitcoin is not a solution, is it?). I lost track. Cash. Plastic money. Right. This particular plastic money thingy of mine has a certain (hi)story to tell. It is in a way synonym for an era. An era of longing, of long distances, of frequent travelling (british English – good bye, by the way, we will miss you, islanders. You’re Europeans – if you want to be that or not!). It didn’t (just) pay for a lot of trips, from Tokyo to Martinique, from Reykjavik to Athens, Lisbon to Helsinki. Through all those years and most of all maintenant, it reminds me of the obvious: that money – be it plastic, bronze, gold, haptic or not – is a bitch! Mindtwister of humanity. Travelling is mind-expanding. Being able to do it without risk and limits is a luxury only very few people on Earth enjoy. Lets remind ourselves of that from time to time.
By now many (both) readers will have realized that this blog post is trying to follow a spiral-shaped path and is not really sure of where it is going. 😉 Be it as it may, … I wish I had the means to travel for real, and if a physicist says a thing like this we all know what it means: space! Spaceships! REAL travel involves spaceships, doesn’t it? I wonder if on Betegeuze-Alpha they still have cash. In a way I hope they have. I like the haptic quality of a coin. Recently, I see those little posters which they put above pissoirs in cafés and restaurants in Germany, sponsored by the ministry of health, saying that cash/bills/coins carry germs! WTF. One doesn’t die so quickly. Humanity wouldn’t be here otherwise. Think of toilets in the middle ages (if any!). Our DNA is programmed to survive a few dirty coins in 2018! It has been in more fn dirty places in the course of history, believe me … believe HISTORY!
Sådär. I’m not a frequent traveler anymore. So be it, Jedi. Jacques Brel just started singing “Ne me quitte pas”. I always hate/love him for doing that. One can travel ANYwhere if one’s phantasy is just large enough. He knew it. Maybe he was one of those people who have been everywhere.
For those who read until here:
And for those of you who do NOT long to just board the next atlantic cruiser to leave for whatever shore it may head for …: all hope is gone.
…
Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt und nichts wird so heiß gegessen wie es gekocht wird. Man muss nirgends hinreisen. Das gesamte Universum ist unseren Gehirnen zu jedem Zeitpunkt zugänglich. Jede/r Unbekannte ist befreundet und freundlich gesinnt. Freundschaft ist Sinnlichkeit. Chér inconnu. Chére inconnue.
Good night, and good luck.
