Portuguese Portents
Posted on August 19th, 2009 – 4 CommentsDo you believe in signs? I mean, warnings of the future? Hints? Stuff like that?
I must admit, I do sometimes peek into the horoscope section of whatever I’m reading just to see what they have to say about my chances for the next day. I never actually follow up to see if there was any shred of accuracy to it afterward, mind you. I just like to be reassured.
I also like to look at the things around me as portents of things to come. Today, for example, I took another route home to try to get some inspiration for this post. And inspired portents I did indeed find:
O — kay. The experience was even creepier because in the back there was a tent with a hunk of cardboard stuck in the front, presumably for privacy. And the whole tent shook rhythmically. Yeah, don’t come a knockin’ rhythmically.
I guess it’s possible something else was going on in the tent. Some kinda art thing. Hehe … yeah, “art“. :D
Papier-mâché items like this (sometimes just limbs), littered the space which also seemed to double as an entrance to some flats in the back. I think. The tent was as wide as the alley so that ended that detour.
Anyway, the sculpture seemed a bit disturbing to me. Kinda like death with an empty name card. As in, anyone’s up for grabs. And then a man’s ass emerged from the tent. Eee!
I hauled.
A few blocks later I looked up and … ?!
Could be some sort of Portuguese decoration? Or maybe … ummm … I need help. Wait a minute! I’m in possession of a semi-functional brain!
Me: “Hey pal, could I trouble you a moment?”
Brain: “The heat … I was gonna go take a nap. Is it important?”
Me: “Totally! Look at that. That’s the second thing that’s reminded me of death today. That one especially because it’s obvious. Is this a warning about death? Our death?”
Brain: “Haha! No. That’s probably someone’s ‘art‘. I mean, look at it! Maybe some viral ad for something, but do you think they nailed this here just for us?”
Me: “Hmmm. Yeah, you have a point.”
Brain: “I mean, the odds of you even seeing this are astronomical. Don’t read too much into it.”
Me: “Thanks, buddy!”
Brain: “No probs.”
And then, across the street from the AGO:
Brain: “Wow. Now this surprised even me.”
Me: “Me too!”
I suppose I could look at it through the Tarot Death card interpretation. It could mean the passing away of a personal epoch, or sometimes parts of oneself. Often this is accompanied with a more positive reading, like this process will give birth to new parts of you that you didn’t know existed. Exciting! Cancerous!
That throws some healthy ambiguity on the fire. So I guess there’s still plenty of room for a reasonable explanation. I just hope that one day I find the people who put these things on the poles; they’ll be the ones with the explanation. That tent guy, well, I’m not going near him again, so we’ll chalk that up to “art” and look no further.
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