Monday 19 July 2010

Gronkey - A Suitable Metaphor For Perspective

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The Gronkey is happy, the Gronkey is sad,
but not ever as bad as Les Miserables.

Perceived as indifferent, blame touched down,
a liminal world, always and never knowing what forces surround.

The Gronkey is green, the Gronkey is an ass,
but it does not keen, nor is flabbergast.

Time meanders, being hated being loved,
resting on the fence, always and never swayed but never shoved.

As an object The Gronkey is nothing more than a simple portmanteau word describing what is physical, and what is easily comprehendible, a green china donkey. However, having been sat on my desk for a month or so, and been key to many contemplatory thought sessions (staring into space) at the bacon ranch, ‘it’ turned to ‘he’ and he started to take on a metaphorical dimension. Perspective and perception are of course very individual traits, thoughts and viewpoints that vary from person to person and make the world go round via agreement and disagreement. Now, this is hardly an apple falling on the head moment, but one day when myself and Gronkey were deep in thought (staring into space) I noticed that whichever way I decided to handle him (rotating, sideways, upside-down etc.) he always kept the same expression that never seemed to look out of place.

For example, (using two emotional extremes to highlight my point) he looks just as natural being strangled…

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As he does being tickled…

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He is of course not changing his expression in reaction to being strangled and tickled, he is just an inanimate object, everything is set. The Gronkey is a constant, he is a green china donkey. But, within differing contexts and subsequent perspectives applied to a constant, a plethora of understandable, but not superior to one another, meanings will emerge. And here it lies, these meanings that we apply and embody as our identity are simultaneously contentious and agreeable, understood and misunderstood; but what is often forgotten is that the constant, which breeds the meaning, is the same to all.

Like I said, hardly an apple falling from on the head moment, but a poignant thought and suitable metaphor as a slice of ‘human nature pie’ nonetheless.

Again, the little poem that says it all:


The Gronkey is happy, the Gronkey is sad,
but not ever as bad as Les Miserables.

Perceived as indifferent, blame touched down,
a liminal world, always and never knowing what forces surround.

The Gronkey is green, the Gronkey is an ass,
but it does not keen, nor is flabbergast.

Time meanders, being hated being loved,
resting on the fence, always and never swayed but never shoved.