speaking of which ☼1

Last week for the first time in a long time, I turned on the radio and lay down on the floor to do a few exercises for my back. On the radio a man was trying to describe a jacket he found really special. I always listen closely when people describe objects that mean something to them because they tease out such unexpected detail that the object soon becomes a collection of bits of unbelievable beauty that makes it impossible to picture it whole, even if it’s put right in front of you.

Anyway, he looked for the words but couldn’t find the right ones, he paused and searched, and it was the care with which he paused and searched that I came to understand how exquisite this jacket must have been because in the end the only word he found was ‘beautiful.’ It was down-filled he said, like a ski-jacket.

He knew it was down-filled because when he helped the woman who was wearing the jacket who had fallen into a fire, he remembered how everything seemed surreal as the white feathers floated above the dark pit.