January 1, 2002.
 
 
 
 

Father said to son:
“If you want to believe it,
then everything I have ever said to you about ThisKindaThing is true,
and if you do not want to believe it, then it is all untrue:
this is why some people so want to believe in a Secret Knowledge that is unconditionally true for everyone --  and there is no such thing -
...well, there is one thing  --   but it does no good to talk about it
since it is the absolute, very last thing anyone would ever think of
if they were trying to think of it” --
they looked at one another; then at the ceiling; then at the walls;
then at the floor; back at one another and the old man went further:
“I could tell you sixty different ways to keep your self from sleeping –
and they’re all simple to do –  but you gotta stay on top of them every second --
--  that’s the hard part” --
he made the kid take a deep breath --  then appeared to continue:
“Even as frustrating as it may be/seem/prove:
--  for those who want to wake up –trying-to-wake-up
is the only thing that keeps them from going crazy,
while for someone who has no interest in waking-up,
trying to would drive them crazy --
and if we lived in a better universe, the full monty contemplation of that fact alone would be sufficient to drive morpheus from your lawn forever  --
...and before you start that breathing crap again, catch this corollary:
                                       Don’t sit when you can stand;
                                       don’t stand when you can pace,
                                       and don’t pace when you can lay down” --
the dog left the room blousing as the old man glared at the thermostat:
“Hardly anyone is really civilized --  they just pretend to be –
--  which is all that is required  --    what else does that remind you of?”
then the cat followed suit, missing hearing the elder say:
“An awakened man remembers everything that everyone else has forgotten,
and has forgotten everything that everyone else knows” --
the fire department called but didn’t get an answer;
the line was too busy between progenitor & spring off:
“Many people who check into this hotel soon say they are driven out by the ever increasing noise they hear upstairs --  but the place has no up stairs --
they brought their own with them;
plus the noise up there is not increasing --  they’re just noticing it more” –
the moon in the pond started its thousand reflections --
even though the japanese lilies were made in tijuana :
“Men mistake movies in their head for marchers in the street --
no, correct that: men do not --  thoughts in men do,
and then the thoughts relay their sighting of the film to men --
but without noting to them that it is mere tomfoolery,
and what with men’s minds being the original Tom in tomfoolery,
they never catch on to this for themselves” –
and then the sprinklers threatened to go off --  but lacked cab fare:
“Man is as physically complex as the next animal,
but the thoughts that pass through his manger create a sensation in him,
of him having a non physical complexity that does not exist;
a plain fact that is all but un seeable --
by the organization responsible for sending out the wise guys;
the way to drag this into the  stable and kick around your snooze is by
following this star sentence to its end: ‘We do not have memories;
we do not have memories:
in the neural inn eternally the only occupant is
whoever at the moment dreams he is there;
and they all sleep in  --  one-bed-at-a-time –
but they all dream of all the previous occupants.
It is fact:  You do not have memories, and running this to its conclusion
will lead you to what you want as fast as anything else you can do” –
and several pictures on the wall turned themselves around:
“Men believe that some thoughts are more important than others;
that thinking about god, truth or beauty is more significant than thinking
about movies, music or sports;
this is why those who can think deny that ordinary men do;
all thoughts are fire flies --  flirting one to another --   triggering one another to light;
                               in the main  --   they are all the same.
Only a child believes into adulthood that words have intrinsic differences:
that some words are sacred and some profane;
that certain words are unquestionably of more importance than others.
Those who sleep into adayhood dream of insects; biting, debating, fleeing, refuting:
all but imaginary ants burrowing in the brain.
All words are nothing but sounds: human whinnies and moos,
and all of perfectly equal significance;
and all thoughts are nothing words;
thoughts are just lightning strikes to the brain;
a never ending, three second phenomena  --  one indistinguishable from another,
with only those landscapes still in the dark pretending this is not so” –
the room was becoming stifling -- the whole house was starting to wheeze:
“Why do you think I talk to you all of the time like this? –
you don’t know why I do! --
you think you know --  but you don’t;
you keep ignoring the fact that  these conversations take place inside one man’s brain,
and that there are not two of us in there –  there is just me:
whatever me it is speaking at every instant;
but in my awareness of my own voice --  I become you, (that is):
I become the sensation of there being a you in here --  hearing me speak.
It all combines to create the normally un analyzable feeling of there being
in this man’s non physical innards, a thing of much complexity:
a self-thing with great depth, history and experience:
and it is but a movie being flashed on his frontal lobes.
‘Hey --  look at me! --  I am a frame in a film.'
The images being seen on the cortical screen are comprehensible, and life like,
but any adult understands that there is actually nothing there;
it is light being projected through an endless thought-film;
there is not actually anybody in here in the man’s brain,
and yet  --   every man’s brain believes that there is” –
the entire structure fell into a cold sweat as father-soliloquer
wrapped his cape about him; fell to one ka-nee, and screamed: “Good God!   --
       can you imagine how much more fun we're having than rhinoceroses!”

                                         K, (nom de plunge for,  J)
 
 
 
 
 

...one guy sez: "Just about the time I think I'm finally about to get-it   --   the barn flees the horse!"
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

...one kid, (not the same one as above) said to his pa: "Some times after one of your talks to me,
I have the suspicion that somewhere in it you actually told me the secret and I just didn't catch it."