Saturday, April 16, 2011

sea, bankers, parrots
















Watching the sea and doubtless thinking about the fish in it.

People dislike bankers, I think to myself, because they know how to breed money and  how to make it breed more. Bankers are money farmers.  And blow bubbles out of money.  But the world needs to borrow money. And to blow bubbles. And so it need bankers, and bankers need to breed money and  to blow bubbles in order to remain bankers.

The tulip bulbs which I planted back in the autumn have turned out to be parrot tulips, multi-coloured  (the petals are bright red inside, but a grayish  green, brightening to yellow outside, fierce looking and tattered) and just now opening as though for battle. Florists tend to call them parrots for short. They sit in a pot on a table in the garden, clearly demonstrating, what when I planted them, I thought, despite what my head told me,  an unlikely outcome.



















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3 comments:

Lucy said...

I got told off by a municipal policier today because I got a bit distracted by some gorgeous red and white striped tulips in a planter in Lamballe ( don't think they were parrots, too tall). They were right by a STOP sign. I stopped all right but did so for a bit too long, looking at the tulips, and misjudged pulling out, more or less into the path of said policier. It was all very safe really, and we only pulled faces at each other, no getting out of vehicles or punitive measures were involved.

Oddly I was thinking about the reflex loathing of bankers, to which I'm as inclined as the next, reading 'The Hare with the Amber Eyes', and how uncomfortably similar it is to the reflex anti-Semitism of the turn of the 20th C, for the same kind of reasons. There's the obvious difference that it's nothing to do with ethnicity, of course, but it gave me pause for thought.

Sorry, bit long-winded there, probably should have e-mailed.

Roderick Robinson said...

I think we dislike those farming bankers because they're not subject to the same laws of supply and demand that govern us. However, one small but nevertheless powerful - and seemingly permanent - act of revenge makes things a little more bearable. I'm not sure how many of your commenters are familiar with Cockney rhyming slang but I for one take pleasure in the abusive sentence: "He's a right merchant banker."

Unknown said...

Lucy I have often been distracted by wayside flowers. I recall in particular bee orchids, which have resulted in cries of protest from passengers as I draw their attention to the flowers.

Lucy and BB I don't feel sorry for bankers, but sometimes I think that they are a necessary evil whose function we need to acknowledge.
Yes indeed,I have frequently resorted to cockney rhyming slang in respect of bankers. It is hard to resist.