Friday, 3 July 2015

Morning

Everyone should wake up happy, then decide what to do with the day.

SM Stirling in Conquistador (New York, 2004), describes a perfect awakening for his character, Tom Christiansen:

Tom is woken by the smell of coffee and the sound of voices;

although he is far from home, he remembers exactly where he is without any bewilderment;

he savors "...the sensation of physical well-being..." (p. 276) and grins at the ceiling;

he reflects that he is on a whole new unpolluted world, in for an adventure;

he finds that his kidnappers have brought his clothes in his own suitcases;

from the bathroom window, he sees "...the fog-streaked grandeur of the bay, lit by the morning sun..." (p. 277), also roofs and treetops emerging "...as the silver-white vapor retreated..." (ibid.);

in the kitchen, his recent girlfriend is at the stove in a bath-robe, her hair hanging loose;

she offers fresh Hawaiian coffee, eggs scrambled with cream, diced scallions and paprika, Canadian-style bacon smoked with apple wood, flapjacks, boysenberry pancakes, toast, fruit and cream;

the high quality of the ingredients is down to local farming that is artisan-scale, not capital-intensive.

It sounds like heaven although would anyone have to do the farming and cooking in heaven? Maybe, but there they would be fulfilling activities, not chores. However, this is not heaven...

No comments: