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Alexa threw up a Simon and Garfunkel song today, Richard Cory. I knew it as a Paul Simon song (not heard this version before) and I used to listen to his albums a lot, but haven't heard this song for a long time and haven't thought about it either. I knew every fucking word, but only as they came out of my mouth. Memory continues to fascinate me - I always had quite a good one, though it fails me a bit more these days. I can't remember loads of stuff from the last nine years of my kids' lives, but I remember every word of this obscure song.
Richard Cory tries to convince us that the blessed life of the super rich might not be that good after all. That seems to be the refrain of most art about the super wealthy - what a terrible time they have, all self-obsessed and competing and trying to get all the money. I suspect that billionaires have a fucking brilliant time and that they aren't concerned by the spiritual emptiness of their full lives. That elite have the rest of us working for scraps as they treat the world like a playground and sure it fucks up for some of them, but I bet not as many proportionately as regular life fucks up for the rest of us. That's maybe why Simon still wishes he was Richard Cory at the end (and I suppose he is now). We're all Richard Cory compared to the poorest in the world of course and to most people in history too.
But this isn't supposed to be about Richard Cory, who doesn't exist, even in his fictional world anymore. It's about why I am able to remember stuff from the 1980s (when I first listened) and not my youngest child's name - Ernold?
After a 2024 where I have not exercised very much, my body has been pounded and not in a good way. A fairly intense PT session yesterday and this morning I did my first Park Run for a while. It was an insanely busy one with 500 people taking part. My watch hadn't charged so I was running blind in terms of time, but that wasn't a bad thing as I just needed to get round. I did it in about 30 minutes and 20 seconds and came exactly 300th out of exactly 500. I have been in the top 100 before (admittedly when there were under 300 running), so this was a slow one. I feel like I am running well, but when I look at the people going at the same pace as me I get a better idea of what I must be looking like too. It's not pretty. It's not what I am imagining.
We had friends coming over so once back I took the kids for a dog walk and a Pokemon Go hunt and then after lunch our friends wanted to go on a dog walk so we all went on another dog walk and my body was ready to lie down and die. But good to be getting back into it. I seem to have overcome the dizziness, though my brain has felt sludgy all year. I think it's just tiredness and age. I will fight it in my efforts to believe I am still 38/24/4 (delete as applicable).
