Cruisin'

Walking down an aisle in the supermarket, I suddenly realized something - levels of consciousness and the ways people express it. While shopping, people exercise thought at superficial levels. Make out a list and buy groceries. Get in the car and go home. Unpack groceries and talk with the wife and so it goes - KV... but what happens when one tries to understand things that, on the surface appear incredibly transparent but are, in fact, anything but.

Imagine an interview with a politician where the reporter asks the usual questions about the vote coming up on a controversial piece of legislation. Immediately the great invisible rears its ugly head where only the bare bones description of the event can be given and little else. There is no way to "really" describe the process of politics. It’s impossible. It’s identical to a painting where the thought and work that goes into making the piece remains forever hidden from view. Only the finished art work remains, all knowing and frustratingly secretive like that of a cat.

You can see the cat but never understand her reality. Just think when we encounter alien civilizations. Think of the great invisible then.

“But Joe, I know they’re strange with their three legs and two huge eyes but I think I can understand them somehow. They do have translators and they can make themselves understandable.”

“Understandable to us in one way but when you hear them talk to each other, it’s whistles and hums. Not only that, the name for their species is utterly unpronounceable to us so how can you say you think you understand them? The only thing I know is that they seem to be able to breath our atmosphere and that’s it. As far as anything else, it’s a crap shoot.”

“I agree with all that you say but I still say I feel I know them at some unconscious level.”

“The only thing I see that’s common between us is digital - 0’s & 1’s. Remember, that’s how they made contact with us. Beyond that one thing, there’s precious little else. The only thing I pray for is that they are good “people” because if they’re not, given our state of technology, we haven’t a chance.”

“I know. All I hope is that they never give us a book to translate. You know, like the one that says "To Serve Man".

“You would have to say that didn’t you.”

“I just did.”