Decay

 

Yes, it’s that time of the year again when rustic colored autumn leaves fall to the ground and slowly rot through the winter. Spring sunshine dries them out briefly after the thaw but they are beyond recovery and eventually disintegrate under foot of animals, humans or the elements turn them to dust, fertilizing the forest in a natural cycle.

Thinking of this cycle, while half incapacitated in bed by a virus or maybe over exertion from my recent cycling adventure, my thoughts turned to a film I saw back in the 1980s. A Peter Greenaway film, called 'Zed and two noughts'. I was spell-bound by the film and found it fascinating but a friend who was sat next to me in the large Odeon cinema got up and walked out halfway through. It was about capturing nature decaying, filmed in time-lapse. Check out Wiki for more info., and why it may have been not to my friend's taste.

 

It made me think of other films I had seen back then that had left their mark on me decades later. Easy Rider, 2001, Clockwork Orange, Midnight Cowboy, Alien and Straw Dogs. Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 ‘Clockwork Orange’ was eventually banned for a period in the UK and it was not a film I would have wished to have seen twice but also I would have regretted missing it. Meanwhile the 1969 'Midnight Cowboy' film was and still is one of my all time favorites, which I must have seen at least ten times, once even in a cinema in Sweden together with a younger sister who was only ten-years-old at the time, despite the film being X-rated. Well that’s Sweden for you.

I hated films with gratuitous violence and avoided films like ‘Chainsaw Massacre’ and ‘Caligula’. However ‘Straw Dogs’ slipped through, which I hated for its violence. It was the only film I ever felt tempted to walk out on but in the end I remained in the cinema to see the end credits.

The 1969 ‘Easy Rider film’ was another classic with a great sound track like Midnight Cowboy and both films introduce a violent element at various points that leave their mark on memory, contrasting the dark and light sides of life. 

So back to decay … a natural cycle of life. We will all decay eventually and turn to dust, there is no escape. So being aware of the changes in nature is important. It is easy to walk through a forest deep in thought or conversation and completely miss what is happening all around. The changing colours, sounds, light and shadows, animals, birds, insects and the incredible variety of flora.

So next time you go for a walk in the countryside, take time to look and you may well be surprised at what you see, it's not all decay but even decay has its beauty.