Eddy Current

I went to the gym and it smelled exactly like it did two years ago. When I walked in, I felt myself age those two years, like the building was still referencing some younger version of me, and stepping through the door had forced us to sync.

I don’t believe this, obviously, but I love how convenient it would be. If the building is out of sync with me, then maybe whatever it is I’m feeling means something specific, and external. Why do I remember how it smelled so precisely? Why do I only remember the best moments from those days?

Secretly, I hope there’s some weird, persistent record that decides to keep these things around. And that in this decision, there’s something to be gleaned about me, and the building. Something to be said about its ability to induce meaning in my inert and drifting self.

What I want is for none of this to be inside of me, so that all I have to do is step away for two years, and stumble back into its warped and wobbling field.