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Basics
What if everyone knew something and you didn't? What if all those young couples had discovered that the secret to happiness was to have a child, and to raise that child and upon doing so the child would one day turn to them and say the one thing that would bring them fulfillment. What if the mad ones were the ones that had seen beyond the facade and saw what was lying underneath, the deeper meaning, the point of it all and that had driven them mad, falling face down screaming into an egg sandwich.
I start to discuss this with my friend and his face goes blank. He doesn't understand why I have to attach importance and meaning to everything, why can't I just embrace the random nature of the world and my place in it? Have another beer.
I look into the beer and watch the patterns of bubbles as they fizz to the surface. I see through the liquid and into the glass, through to the table beneath and I ponder who made the glass, who made the table, who made the beer, the taste of the beer on my tongue and the chemical reactions that make the sensation pleasurable inside.
He calls me back to the here and now with a thumped fist on the table, there is a splash as beer as it sloshes over the rim and trickles down the side of the glass. I catch a pearl of beer as it slides down the vertical surface on one fingertip and suck on it.
He redoubles his attack. There is no deeper meaning, no higher purpose. We look for basic things in life, a comfortable living situation, sustenance, companionship, entertainment. If something doesn't provide one of these then we have no use for it, no time. We live as selfish individuals within what should otherwise be a complimentary society, working towards a common goal, instead we are also the first species to have the ability to wipe ourselves out entirely, working at a diametrically opposite purpose to our biological mission; to procreate, to perpetuate, to survive.
I look up from the sustenance at my companion, entertained by his lucid ramblings, finish the drink and head home to my comfortable living situation with hopes of attempting some procreation when I get there.
Jul. 1.2007