Journal #4

There’s a sink in the undergrowth. Trash everywhere. The walk into work is secluded enough that, although it is still categorised as ‘nature’, people don’t feel guilt when they throw everything to the vines. First few hours were nice. I was thinking about the Trojan epic cycle. I’m obsessed with Homer and Virgil. I was thinking about how the Iliad is History’s greatest action story and how the Aeneid focuses on the tragedy of a man with the weight of fate on his shoulders. Aeneas doesn’t want to roam but must. He must find a way to be a great leader like Priam or Hector. Unlike Odysseus, who is desperate for home and will stop at nothing to get there, Aeneas doesn’t have a home, and every time he finds one for him and his people it’s not the one the Gods have chosen for him. I don’t see Aeneas as a bad man, or a bad leader. He’s the last surviving hero of the Trojans and must carry that weight even if he feels he can’t. Virgil was good. Then work hit me and I was left thinking about where I should go in life. On the way home my neighbour appeared and asked me if wanted a lift. He had been out to buy onions. The conversation ended there.