Scrolling up and down the folders of my work, I see that some documents are larger than others. Easy to forget that those words, these words, though digitised, still take up a kind of space. I guess in the old days you’d get storage issues with the drafts. Stacks of paper everywhere. Spilled ink. You’d always be reminded of all that you had done. The mass of the work occupying your life. Less visible now, but still there. And I wonder if the weight of something has any correlation to its significance. Take aa black hole, about as heavy of a thing as you can get. I don’t think we all spend the precious minutes of our day thinking about those great celestial predators, despite their enormity. No. It is the little things. The smiles. The peonies. The bees. They take centre stage in our thoughts. So I don’t think there is much relation between words and weight. The longest text might whisper, while the shortest text sings.
Paddy Dobson
30th August 2021