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I miss your socks
I miss your socks
Socks. Some are standard office wear, ribbed, in grey or black. Professional and functional. They look stylish on the rack.
Some are warm and cosy; they’re not designed for shoes. They’re fluffy and substantial, and they’re not the kind you lose. And they don’t tend to get separated from their partners in the wash!
Some are just rebellious when worn with uniform; they don’t go with anything; a perfect fashion storm. Not found in the dress code, they’re bright or patterned, jokey or rude; a little bit ‘out there’; not worn by the subdued.
Perhaps they hide a secret punk, (if your trousers are long enough), or an out of character attitude. Perhaps they’re last year’s Christmas socks and they’re worn with gratitude.
Some people prefer them understated – I am one of those. Why should I give my socks the stage, the limelight to my toes? But, socks can be a talking point of friendly office chat. They can make a statement - subtle or blatant. Passive aggressive, flippant, playful, or…. ‘bollocks to all of that!’.
The thing about socks is their absence: on the phone, or zoom. A sock is only spotted when you’re actually in the room. They don’t peep out from trousers or move with tapping feet. When all you see is faces framed. A snapshot or still, of a scene you’re not in. Essentially incomplete. You might see a tiny little glimpse, of the wallpaper or couch, the ceiling or the hallway in somebody else’s house.
But I miss what comes with being there – the sharing of the space. The smells you smell together and the shadows on the face. The shoulders moved just slightly and the reason for the smile; the fidgeting of figures and their posture and their style. The mutual awareness of footsteps on floors, opening and closing and slamming of doors; children playing with dogs or with balls; and talking and laughing muffled through walls. The rhythmical conducting by the clock as it ‘tick tocks’. And of course I never get to see, the colour of your socks.
Copyright Phyllida Alexander 14th September 2021
You're on mute!
You're on mute!
Lips moving, chin too. Head tilted, eyebrows raised, sometimes teeth in view. Distinctly giving signals of 'being listened to'.
Every visual evidence of audience in tow, all their gestures understood and cognitively so. Sadly though, this isn’t so - appearances belied. Expression and reception are yet to coincide. The only explanation for this curious vexation: that once again the speaker is ‘off-side’.
We’re all becoming practised – we’re all now quite astute. The momentary confusion that doesn’t quite compute, is definitely shorter than it used to be. The conflict of perception – what we hear and what we see! Until of course, somebody, pipes up with “you’re on mute”.
Familiarer this year than at any time before, Not sure I’ve heard another line in lockdown used more. You’d think it an expletive for its frequentive repeative. Except that it’s polite. And helpful, what is more.
It may have been a choice just moments before, to mitigate disturbances of sound. But silencing yourself to give someone else the floor, leaves you most disabled when your turn comes around.
A speaker with no voice can’t interact, a speaker with no voice cannot impact. Unlike the silent movie whose message is conveyed with gesture and expression: for this, was Zoom not made.
Copyright Phyllida Alexander 14th September 2021
The sound of silence
The sound of silence
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