Juxtaposition

I just walked past a young couple who were hugging. The girl looked pretty sad. They were standing next to an ATM, so I thought that they must be having money problems, and I really felt for them.

But then I started thinking that if they weren’t standing next to an ATM I wouldn’t have thought that at all. And, in fact, the hug could have been about anything, and maybe she wasn’t even sad at all. I thought this was a very good example juxtaposition, though, how placing things next to each other determines our reaction to them.

I moved this little scene around in my head and thought about what my assumptions of the situation would have been if the couple were standing outside:

* A doctor’s surgery

* A nightclub

* A phone box

* A nursing home

Train

I knit standing up because I can’t spare any time not knitting in the run up to Christmas. I’ve trodden in chewing gum and rejoice in the fact that it wills tick me to the floor so that I don’t fall over. I definitely don’t think about the fact that very recently it was rolling around inside of a stranger’s mouth. The kind of stranger who spits their gum out on the floor. And now it’s stuck to my new boots. The ones I bought second hand. And scrapped some jewellery to buy. I get a seat at last and increase my knitting pace. I put my headphones in and listen to Taylor Swift. Someone near me is singing along to her iPod. On the train. In public. I wish I could do that.