From 7f93c5f7205bc1cc0c2e21694fd10880eec51aca Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Case Duckworth Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 22:54:41 -0700 Subject: Add Hezekiah; Work out YAML metainfo" --- 98-hez-movingsideways.txt | 56 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 56 insertions(+) create mode 100644 98-hez-movingsideways.txt (limited to '98-hez-movingsideways.txt') diff --git a/98-hez-movingsideways.txt b/98-hez-movingsideways.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43d5481 --- /dev/null +++ b/98-hez-movingsideways.txt @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +--- +title: 'Moving Sideways' +project: 'Book of Hezekiah' +project-order: 5 +project-prev: 'proverbs.html' +project-next: 'problems.html' +genre: 'prose' +... + +A dog moving sideways is sick; a man moving sideways is drunk. Thus if +you want to be mindful of the movings of the universe sideways, become +either drunk or sick. By doing this you remove yourself from the +equation, and are able to observe, without being observed, the universe +as it dances sideways drunkenly. + +Shit wait. The problem is not that by observing you are observed +(although quantum mechanics may disagree[^1]), because obviously dogs +don't know we're observing them when we watch them through cameras in +their little yard while they play and eat and poop---who poops knowingly +on camera? The problem is *the actual act of observing that distorts the +world into what we want it to be*. + +What I want to know is this: Why is this necessarily a problem? The dog +is made, by mankind, to frolic and poop and sniff and growl and dig. Why +cannot the man be made to observe the world incorrectly around him, and +worry about it? Men have always wandered about the earth; does it not +make sense that also they should wonder in their minds what makes it all +work?[^2] In fact this is the very center of the creative being: the +ability to move sideways, to dance with reality and judge it as it +judges you, much like teenagers at the junior prom. + +Of course, reality doesn't judge us back. But that doesn't mean that it +doesn't! If you think it's judging you, then *observe in your +surroundings your own insecurities*. It is obvious that this way of +doing things is far from vogue; usually projecting [inner pain][] onto the +outer world is classified as pathology. However, this is because it is +assumed that the outer world is *on its own terms*, which it obviously +isn't, as far as we know. It follows that as [there is no backdrop][backdrop] +against which to judge our quirks, the quirks must not exist. Thus all +is right with the world. + +[inner pain]: telemarketer.html +[backdrop]: philosophy.html + +[^1]: Quantum mechanics, as is well known, are the most hornery and + least agreeable of all mechanics. The cost to get one quantum + serviced is usually at least eight times more expensive than the + cost of an average automobile tune-up, for reasons not clearly + known. The quantum mechanics themselves claim it's the smallness of + their work that justifies the price, but it doesn't really look like + they're doing anything, and besides, my quantum always seems to + break again within six months---maybe I'm just driving it too hard. + +[^2]: I attempted to strike this terrible pun from the account, but + Hezekiah demanded I keep it if he were to continue the relation of + his prophecy-slash-advice column -- cgit 1.4.1-21-gabe81