A Rabbit out of a Hat

Somewhere between putting a sock on the left foot and a matching one on the right foot, you discover lost youth, sliding into an alternate universe in much the same manner Alice did when she tumbled down the rabbit hole. Who knows how long you might have remained in that state if you had not needed to heed the knocking at the door of two perfectly agreeable sorts who'd come to measure the bathroom, a place they plan to reduce to a pile of rubble tomorrow, installing what one of the two men called a younger, more flexible environment.

It is all too easy to become an inflexible environment, radiating intransigence and suspicion. One of the products of the aging process is a set routine, wherein everything must be done according to a ritual, left leg in the pants first, then right leg left shoe on first, then right. Things to be done on the left side of the desk, things done moved to the right for later filing or discard. Another waste product of age is assumption, as in assuming you know a thing without having given the particular thing a chance to become a part of your curiosity.

If. A major concept for the inquirer in us.

Suppose. A major hypothesis, set before us, ready to be tested.

Imagining a Big Bang is the ante into the game of modern life. Imagining the forces that caused the things that produced the destiny that became us, this is the first peek at the hand dealt us in this cosmic game of draw poker, which is a nice if. But not a completely satisfying one. There is so much to If and Suppose about, knowing that we can never hope to find out enough to satisfy us for long periods of time.

It is wired-in behavior that causes us to pause while putting on socks or falling off a page on the computer screen or the page of a book or a line of a poem. The cultural tradition I was born into has a concept of The Divine Nothingness, across which we are enjoined to throw ourselves every day, hopeful of landing on the other side. In his own remarkable way, Soren Kierkegaard saw the need for what he called a leap of faith. Since I;m what I am by culture rather than belief, I prefer to think of that Divine Nothingness as a place to explore, demons, dragons, and monsters to be considered no more an obstacle nor less than anything in the actual world.

I'm for the rabbit hole.

Maybe see you there.