We do not know what we are looking for; only that we are looking for something that will become apparent when we find it. But the explanation of the target of our search will be far too convoluted for us to know what we have found…only that we found something that is extremely important, but for reasons that are beyond us. And that’s the way it usually is with us; vitally important stuff that’s crucial for us to understand is absolutely, perpetually, eternally inaccessible. The answers to our questions become more urgent with each passing second…at the same moment the questions become harder to understand…because the languages in which they are written and spoken are completely unrelated. Which leads us to a corner of the universe which has never before been explored; one of those scary spots.
+++
The differences between healthy curiosity and meddlesome intrusion may not be the stark differences you imagine, at all. Instead, point of view might be the driving factor. Simple perspectives often contribute to how a person treats an expression of inquiry. The resident next door may consider his questions of you to be simple and straightforward…intended to be taken as a compliment of his admiration of your handling of matters at hand. You, on the other hand, might label his apparent curiosity as blatant interference; the behavior of an over-eager nosy neighbor whose brashness you find offensive. What good might it do you if you were to made to understand the true—and perfectly innocuous—motive behind that offensive curiosity? On the other hand, how might your assessment be influenced by the knowledge that sinister motives prompted the neighbor’s interest? In either case, your judgment is colored by paranoia…its influence or lack thereof. Even when paranoia is dismissed as having no responsibility for one’s assessment, the very fact that it was considered a potential factor highlights the fact that it is almost always worth considering. Now, does all of this make sense to you? If it does, do you find that disturbing? Would you rather use much simpler filters to examine the the relative importance of all aspects of your life? And if that facet of existence commands a significant amount of your time, can you hold out any realistic hope that any aspect of your life might eventually become “normal?”
+++
I hold out little hope I will ever have a firm grasp on physics…quantum physics, in particular, but conversations about any regular old physics leaves me confused and embarrassed at the depth of my ignorance. Yet I continue to periodically engage in feeble attempts to understand such matters. Anyone else with even the most basic, crudest, and stunningly unsophisticated appreciation of physics would be judged far more knowledgeable. No matter how hard I try, I cannot fully comprehend the differences between the odor of emotions and the taste of gravity. Similarly, I simply cannot discern any obvious differences between light lavender, and the way numbers—especially prime numbers—smell. The fundamental complexities of the universe are far too elegant to be understood within the confines of a single human brain. Only when multiple brains are working collectively at the same speed and in the same direction as the others in close proximity can people have even a remote hope to truly “know” things that are hidden before us. I would explain these complexities to you if your brain had sufficient powers of concentration to get beyond the fourth level of GIANT UNDERSTANDING. Only at that “crimson” level is it possible to successfully blend colors with different kinds of sheep’s wool, thereby creating casual sounds that mimic hard-rock piano with just a hint of smoked coconut flavor. This is all bullshit, by the way. And I know it, of course.
+++
More when the time is right.
