[Jake’s out of Iraq, and back in Dubai…]
I visited the world’s newest tallest building today — Humanity’s latest height.
The whole experience smelled of new paint.
From the 124th observation floor I could still see starving people all over the world.
I could almost see Mesopotamia where I had been in Iraq, where the tower of Babel once stood and where people still fight.
Many tourists, many languages, we all took photos, that’s what we do.
I could not see the desert though we stand on it and are surrounded by it.
There’s no where to sit, to contemplate. The gift kiosk sold stylish tissue box covers, there was only one urinal in the men’s room and it didn’t have auto-flush.
I could see the past but the building promoted only the future.
Hu-m-m-m. Your words and observations, as always, are keenly and cleanly brought to rest on some ancient, trembling nerve. Perhaps tall things are not built for contemplation with the apparent surroundings, but as a haughty snubbing of a disappointing history. Simply a platform for strutting into a designed future from an unfulfilling past. Gads, at 2 PM one should not be alone with a keyboard.
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