Sainsbury's Loca

Five minutes ago I walked into Euston Station at the top of the Charing Cross road and I saw a sign ahead of me in bright neon orange that said: "Sainsbury's Loca" For those of you from the British Isles you'll know what it was meant to say. For readers from elsewhere, this is a local supermarket chain. 'Loca' in spanish means 'Crazy".

So… Sainsbury's Crazy. 

Discuss… 

A place where anyone can walk in and just buy whatever they would like to eat. It's open 8am till 11pm. Anything you can possibly want. When did that become normal? It's been that way all my life and so to me it's always been normal. But I now imagine a place where there are cows on streets instead of steaks on shelves. Dusty, filthy bottles in pushcarts instead of secret delivery trucks in the middle of the night. If you go to one of these Sainsbury Loca's at 11pm you'll see the magic for yourself. Shelves being stocked by actual people. So it wasn't magic after all. 

Has magic made me happy? I don't know.

It certainly makes life easier but then life has always been easy.  Why am I in such a strangely philosophical mood as the 5.30pm from Euston speeds it's way, packed with suits, track pants, papers and people to Watford Junction? Perhaps it's because I'm still getting used to life in London after the shock of Addis Ababa, perhaps it's because I've just seen 'On the Road' the film of Jack Kerouac's novel. Perhaps its because I haven't eaten anything since breakfast. Likely it's a combination of the three. 

So what does it take to be happy? Is happiness a fleeting moment? Can it be sustained? And if it can, do I want it to be? Wouldn't I stop appreciating it if I had never known anything else? Just like my Sainsbury's Loca? What if I am happy but am too depressed to realise it? What if my happiness is just a disguise? Am I really happy or am I just pretending to be happy in the hope that the pretence will somehow manifest itself as actual happiness.  I have too many questions about this and not enough answers. On the dusty back streets of Addis Ababa I saw people laughing and smiling, shaking each others hands in greeting, I saw others crying and begging. In London I have seen people laughing and smiling as well, and people shouting and expressions of rage that have terrified me. One man was shouting into his phone c$%^! over and over again. I wondered what the phone had done to deserve it.