“There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.” Douglas Adams
…..er…………..perhaps Douglas is simply stirring the pot, dunking the crouton of absurdity in the soup of creation, after all, hasn’t this all happened many times over, given rise to the complexity and mystery of life, and, oh yes, isn’t this happening all the time?! Questions, questions…..seems Life is made up of them, and perhaps, its this that Douglas is nudging us into realising….with a nod and a wink.
But, then, as another bunch of very English absurdists once suggested “a nods as good as a wink to a blind bat” (Monty Python).
Which seems like perfect sense in a world where most of the (ahem) ‘democratic’ governments look like zoos full of traumatised animals making decisions about the nature of reality on the other side of the bars…..
We are always looking for answers, fixated on them in fact, at the expense of those delicious questions, especially the more tasty ones. (Aah, getting serious are we now – ed.) Yes, ed…..and when we think we’ve found them what happens? Collectively, we are constantly re-inventing the world based on the answers we find, our perceptions interwoven, creating a field of resonance within which ‘concensus realities’ correspond to shared values and world views most common to us. And yet, while we live within varying and even conflicting concensus realities, our personal reality is and remains at heart, unique. Batty…..(perleeze! – ed.)
I like Douglas Adams humour, his healthy sense of the ludicrous anarchy of it all, and the laughable nature of our mental gymnastics that it spotlights, that helps us lighten up in the midst of pondering Life’s deeper questions – as he has famously pointed out on many occasions, its all very well having the answer, and ’42’ is the answer to Everything according to the ‘Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, but, what use is it if you don’t know what the question was, or the ‘right’ question to ask…..(I sense there’s more – ed.)
……or understand it and why we are asking it, (and how many of us do!) Don’t we spend an inordinate amount of time asking ourselves the ‘wrong’ questions, those pesky ‘other’ ones in which we become sidetracked into a soup of petty distraction, swimming in a viscous slurry of everyday detail and personal concerns that make blinkers of our struggles – and what happens when these coalesce into their own tasteless concensus, born of domestic dramas that spill over into the collective and generate magnetic fields of influence out of which mass tragedies seem to manifest? As if thats all that matters. The ‘Media’ love this kinda instant cuppa-soup….its big business, etc etc etc…..convenience food?
No answers here dear reader (quelle surprise – ed)…..better to live within what Alan Watts called ‘the wisdom of insecurity’ and scoop up another spoonful, just to make sure and adjust the seasoning. And then, eventually, perhaps, we can get down to enjoying the spaghetti soup that is Life, and learn how to transform it into a more delicious Minestrone…….lucky for some, who can?!….
…….but, oh how we love those crunchy bits of baked and fried bread (that we are) – soggy anomolies in the consome of creation…….Stone Soup, anyone……a side dish of distasteful absurdity that is specially prepared by our chefs to meet European standards – indigestion guaranteed…..
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