CarrollBlog

I saw a beautiful object in a store window and went in to have a closer look: A wooden stepladder which flipped around in an ingenious way to become a kind of footstool. One of those objects you see in someone's house and covet. Not a major thing, but a thoughtful, beautiful one that adds a cherry on top of life's everyday aesthetic. Anyway, I got up close and the ladder was as lovely as I had first thought. A salesman came over and we chatted about what a cool thing it was. I asked how much it cost. He said eight hundred euro. Eight hundred euro. Some part of me feels almost physically ill when I experience something like this. All the enthusiasm I had a moment ago drains. I just want to leave the store as fast as I can without having to make eye contact again with the salesman. Aren't they ashamed? Aren't they even a little embarrassed to say to your face eight hundred euros when two feet away from both of you is a wooden ladder? Obviously not.
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At night, when the hair grows on your face, and your body grows longer, and dinner is changed to blood, and your nails grow longer, you ought to remember, however empty your sleep, how much is untouched by the conscious mind."

Delmore Schwartz