Complex Affairs of High Finance - May 26 2022

 

Complex Affairs of High Finance

May 26 2022

Where is everyone off to

this early afternoon?

A blur of cars

coming and going

every which way,

as if they all cancelled out

in a zero sum game

of getting nowhere fast.

Old beaters

trailing the blue-black smoke

of half-burned gas.

My over-heating car

stuck for consecutive reds,

harassed

by someone's booming bass

before finally inching ahead.

Manoeuvring

past loaded carts

down narrow aisles

between densely packed shelves.

Cooling my heels

and gritting my teeth,

as the tired looking lady

with the 3 shrieking kids

picks over the bin

of loose roma tomatoes.

She eyes them closely,

holds each to her nose, sniffing noisily,

then gives a squeeze

to tease out ripeness.

As if the best 

had been hidden underneath

for discerning shoppers like her

to triumphantly unearth.

A long line at the bank,

and a lone teller

dealing with a man I can only assume

must be heir to the Rockefeller fortune,

seeking advice

for his complex affairs

of high finance.

Either that,

or a bad cheque.

And next, the slow-talking guy

who has all the time in the world,

and no idea

how ATMs work.

It's exhausting, these days

navigating city life.

Which is how all these nameless people

must see me as well;

merely an object

placed in the way

to obstruct and frustrate 

the seamless completion of their appointed tasks.

Yes, we are social creatures,

comfortable

in our small related clans

of 150 or so.

But not with thousands of others

all at once.

The cacophony

of honking horns

and gunning cars.

Non-stop construction.

The sum of all that talk.

The cart

with the wonky wheel

running roughshod over my toes,

and the kids she's given up on

tearing up and down the aisle.

The tomatoes, tasteless and hard

now that the good ones are gone.

I just had that kind of a day. Nothing more to this poem than that!

The number 150 wasn't just pulled out of the air. Robin Dunbar was a British anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist who studied primate social relationships, and extrapolated from brain size the number of relationships a typical human being can successfully maintain. He gave his name to what has become known as the “Dunbar number”. Some dispute his findings. But the number rings true to me. I believe modern tribal groups who lead a traditional life, as well as studies of prehistorical clans, all suggest that 150 is close to the optimal group size for social cohesion and ultimate success.