I'll go Confucius one better... If a tree falls in the forest, how does it know whether anyone is listening? If you're alone in a sealed room, how do you know you're anywhere?
I was out on the sidewalk in town recently, and four men passed by me in a line; two of them were identical twins, the type who trouble themselves to dress identically as well. Only, the twins were the first and fourth men in line, respectively, as they passed – like human bookends. The experience was just a tad unnerving.
I've made this comment before, but it never ceases to amaze me how bicyclists wear all this trendy streamlined protective gear, and literally brandish their physical fitness at the rest of the non-bicycling world they navigate through... then habitually run stop signs, something no conscientiously life-savoring individual would ever do, on foot or in a vehicle. Proof that arrogance is actually an evolutionary safety valve to help keep the population down.
Whenever I go somewhere to browse, like at a bookstore, I find either beautiful women congregating, or spaced out wanderers. Never an even mixture. It makes me wonder which group I belong to – and I'm definitely not a woman.
I have about five different versions of "Clair de Lune" on my iTunes list. I enjoy listening to them in succession, like a great debate where I agree fully with all points of view.
A mental exercise I do – that I think probably places me among a very small group of human beings indeed, if I'm not in fact the only one, or certifiable – is making up lists of comically outrageous words. A few past examples would be like, "glittertwit," "rectalooza" and "crotchurion." I was a little distracted one afternoon, at a coffeeshop, engaged in this little writing warm-up... coming up with some real groaners and eye-ball rollers. I felt a presence behind me, and turned my head to look. An elderly woman with a five-or-six year old granddaughter were reading over my shoulder. "You see," said the woman to the girl, "how important it is to practice your spelling." I could only grin, like an enterbuttual.
