Saturday 10 February 2018

Hold (February)

The Network, as it calls itself, nowadays interrupts our tram trips with Announcements. “For your safety, please remember to hold on.” This is female Network, a reassuring voice with normally more to say. Her simple instruction hangs in the air like an empty strap-handle. It’s a Zen koan, reminder that we live in the Void, even inside a rapid moving three-carriage articulated transport vehicle managed by the Network. I think of my grandmother, in February 1913, aged 14, hanging from the running board of a Fitzroy tram, and her acerbic response to “For your safety, please remember to hold on.”   

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