rotherhithe tunnel

Finally, after many years of wanting to, I went through the Rotherhithe tunnel under the Thames, on foot. It is a vehicular tunnel but bikes and pedestrians are allowed; only about 20 brave souls use it daily, apparently.

Despite a bit of a petrol smell it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had thought it would be [‘really’ narrow pavement, choking fumes, coughing up black tar afterwards]. It was only 7 am though. I saw two cyclists coming the other way. Shame the pedestrian stairs have been closed for 70 years though as it would make the trip much shorter. I guess I must have given the motorists something to gawp at? They can’t see too many runners?

happy new year

Shigeki Tomura

It’s amazing how such nondescript, mundane juxtapositional still-lifes can have such a sublime, meditative, nature. How do they evoke such ‘spiritual’ memory patterns in our heads?

 

“It is very difficult to explain this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it. The individual feels the nothingness of human desires and aims and the sublimity and marvellous order which reveal themselves both in nature and the world of thought. He [the experiencer] looks upon individual existence as a sort of prison and wants to experience the universe as a single, significant whole”
–Albert Einstein

 

pop

Interesting graphics.