There’s some old quote about living in interesting times. Most people hopefully do not believe that is a good thing. Life here in Cambodia is normally not so interesting. It’s a slower pace. Days go by at some pace. It’s funny about clocks. I don’t see them in places. Like in this coffee shop there is no clock. My android phone faithfully tracks time for me but there is nothing it has to do. There are no reminders. No events. I don’t wear watches either. Confounded ugly devices which pound and pulse and remind. Track and notify.
The absence of clocks seems here to represent this life difference. People just don’t care. Whether it’s 10am and I’ve been sitting an hour here or I just arrived. The barista could care less. She serves my coffee and tea and leaves me alone. There’s a window in front where take away orders are done. People come and go. Sometimes I see barang people. They mostly get orders to take away. Is that a hurry up thing? Or just a desire to have that coffee on the move. I don’t like having coffee to go. I don’t like taking it somewhere else. What I want is no time.
Luckily as I remember, most coffee shops have no reminders. No clocks. Perhaps clocks make for interesting times. Times and clocks. Appointments and places. I don’t like those things. If I were dr Seuss perhaps I would lamely say,
I don’t like clocks. I don’t like them at all. No. I don’t like clocks. Summer or fall.
But my phone tells me reliably the time. I wonder why there is no way to turn off the clock on top. Why do we have to know. Even the weather widget shows me the time. Is it just me?
So that’s my thought for the day. Time? No. Don’t need it. I guess I have felt less than involved for some time. Maybe it’s some after effect of the year end. That’s a big time thing. A shift. Change. New. Old. Maybe my old retired mind revolts against time. I told my wife once I would not waste my time with people I did not like. Cruel. Heartless. But why. Why should I care or want associations with people I don’t care for. All it really does is make time more interesting in it’s passing when I deal with people I would rather not be around. Time interesting maybe equals slower passing. Then I perhaps do watch the slow ticking. Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Days? How the fuck long until I don’t have the interesting times. When I can sit in the coffee shop again. Then time dissolves…
The barista watches her TikTok and I read or write. Interesting things? Take it as you will.