What are we to make of this loss?

I used to have a flatmate, always moaning that “Life dealt him deuces”. Always asking “Why am I such a loser?”

He was a lawyer. Or at least, he was a law student at the time. He did graduate, but chose to travel the world & eventually found his place in the cosmos… as a Trafalgar Tour Bus Guide. He’s been doing that for decades (unless my news is a little out of date).

Anyway, he was so secure in his self chosen status, that he planned to get a sweatshirt screenprinted with “Loser”. But then, in a moment of inspiration – he was quite witty actually, I may blog one day about the NZ Continuance Society that he created, his answer to the Temperance Society. That was back in the days when each election, we would vote as to whether our electorates would be “dry”. As in, no beer.

I’m digressing, but the NZ Continuance Society used to meet each Wednesday night at the Brunswick Arms. Old barmen there may remember us. Or not.

But anyway, in a moment of inspiration… and that reminds me, the NZ Continuance Club’s patron was that MP who fell over on his way home, possibly in a drunken stupour… Keith Someone… And I nearly lost my job distributing Continuance Club flyers around work, when it turned out the GM was an avid tea totaller. I got off with a warning.

So, inspired…. He had his sweatshirt emblazoned with “Losser”. Get it? He was such a loser, he couldn’t even spell it.

I came across this particularly heartrending example of “tagging” earlier today. I walk past this spot twice a day & this is the first time I’ve noticed it. SO maybe it appeared sometime during the wild & wet night. Who knows? I may just never have seen it.

And it gave me pause for thought. Has tagging entered some existential phase? Was it some grieving English soccer fan?

I expect the stupid & incomprehensible names. I expect the odd bit of political comment. I expect bravado, arrogance & panache. Am I expecting too much from graffiti?

I do not expect pain, grief, despair and loss.

On the other hand, maybe the vandalising fuck deserved it. Losser.