The Replies Book

Drab neon and fluorescent subtleties greet the visitor.

We are all visitors some say.

Even living in a house originally built by a great grandfather does not mean you have set root in a place.

No, that takes centuries.

So longevity needs to grow by leaps and bounds to enable one family to be a fixture.

And this could be a good thing.

Consider a slow ponder – followed by doing something else!

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The notebook cover showed images of a town surounded by hills.

There was no snow and yet the mountains had a whitish sheen, a sort of assumed alabaster.

Smoke spiralled from many of the chimneys of the houses, the pottery and the blacksmith.

A big sign shouted “Bank of Sideways – Loans you never regret”.

A gate secured the only road in.

A tavern and a string discotheque (acoustic only) seemed the only places where sounds of life being lived seeped beyond their walls into the street.

Notably, everyone smiled, even at strangers.

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It was a long time ago, some said 100 years or more.

The author was walking from one village to another when she met a dog.

The dog stayed with her and deterred two thieves, an attacker and a conman.

She did not know how many times the dog saved here from bad events.

The dog remained a friend and guardian for many years, outliving her by a few.

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At the bank the manager was dancing with her tellers and the customers were playing the latest high interest rate hits.

The bagel shop next door was complaining that their customers were no longer lingering.

After a while the baglers were consoled by the concept of having a good neighbor and designed promotional offers for customers who were about to do some fat banking, and perhaps some dancing.

On the opposite side of this surprisingly traffic-less street, was a stationery shop of the old type; they were either out of stock of things or had too many of an item.

We might need inventory control of the soul.

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Sell.

Then there will be no need for an extra suitcase.

Thin out the stuff and nonsense, then there’ll be less to deal with and less to talk about.

Or Keep it all and let it pile up.

Neither a horder nor a disposer, we say.

If it’ll look like a sparkle, create a smile, cause ten minutes of happy trembles, frame it, shelve it, chest it, keep it.

The rest…out the door it goes.

Simple to be simpler it seems.

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