Monday, December 17, 2007

Intermission

A tall Swedish man in black is mowing a foot path around his house. We are not far from Officer Crescent street in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.

posted by tobin at 6:52 PM

2 Comments:

Blogger goosecove32 said...

test1

6:53 PM  
Blogger goosecove32 said...

"A tall Swedish man in black is mowing a foot path around his house."

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This is not a simple observation of a lawn mowing...the "mowing a . . . path" is clearly a metaphor for a productive endeavor that suggests the clearing away of obstructions or impediments that previously have obscured the "way". The fact that this is a path being cleared, and not simply an area of land, implies that a journey is underway.

Equally notable, the path being cleared is "around" the house. It appears that the house (a common literary metaphor for family, or settled, stable domesticated existence) is at the center of the journey. The "house" is the central object here. Further note the possessive form- it is “his” house…in other words this journey is a self-introspection into his own domestic affair, not some amorphous other party.

The fact that the subject is a "tall. . . man in black" has three implications. A "tall" person would have the ability to "see" over and above the grass (even if it was unusually high); hence the path being created by the man is a well-informed direction. [A good parallel is the superior view we all have enjoyed as a child when our Dad hoisted us up on his shoulders].

The "man" is obviously Toby. The fact that he is in "black" traditionally connotes power, conviction, and authority.

Finally, the path mowed could have been described in dozens of manners...yet what we see here is a "foot" path. Clearly, the aforementioned journey is being made (or is in the process of being made), alone- most footpaths are designed for a single pedestrian, not a pair.

Could Toby be at a milestone in his journey?

7:19 PM  

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