Lying on benches or grass

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When I was younger I used to lie down on grass or benches in a park for hours waiting for someone to come and talk to me. Anyone else ever done that? I reasoned that since people never liked me if I was initiating conversations it might work better letting them initiate. I recall spending at least a year of my life spending most days lying down on the floor.

I hope you don't mind but I saw your earlier post. It was a really powerful piece of writing and was so genuine. I also like Sartre. Have you read any Gide? I really liked the counterfeiters when I was younger.

I spent a lot of time lying in the grass or benches, not to initiate contact but to just watch the clouds. Also at university I got rid of my bed and slept on the floor. I think it is great for feeling grounded.

Thank you. I haven't seen The Counterfeiters or read any of Gide's books. My brain is more pickled than it used to be (I read a lot more before years ago) but I will try to watch that film and read some of his stuff.

I wrote that earlier post to try to describe why someone becomes dependent on alcohol. But then I thought it wasn't thought through enough so i deleted it.

I wanted to reply once I had given your previous post some thought as it was so profound and I didn't just want to blurt something out. I used to love this Swedish book called "the bee- keepers - tales from the underground heaven" by a Swedish playwright called Lars Noren, I looked but can't find it in English. I just read it over and over. Your post reminded me a lot about that. It is very powerful what happened to you and you write really beautifully. Maybe you should try and turn it into a short story if you feel you have enough distance from it to do that.

I didn't know they made a film of the counterfeiters, but the book was good.

I don't think it was that profound. I appreciate your opinion anyway. I am a bit of a writer. I'm trying to write a novel at the moment. Only managed 5 pages so far. Sounds like you read a lot. That is a wonderful thing to be cultured and be able to explore beyond the sometimes humdrum everyday world we all live in. A great way to stimulate the mind and learn more too.

That’s is really good to hear that you are writing a novel.

You know I do think it was fairly profound. My daughter was up a lot of the night with a fever and I couldn’t sleep so I was remembering bits. I particularly liked the references to the clothes and the strangeness of finding oneself in such a different place still in the same clothes and walking past all those restaurants and feeling like one was in another world. Or invisible. And some of the other references were things that really stuck too. Considering I just skimmed it once, it was very memorable. More than anything what made it profound and thought provoking was not anything specific you said but rather the tone you wrote in which just really captured some sense of just being on an inevitable trajectory and being somewhat unable to get off.

Incredibly hard thing to live through though.