In a Landscape: LIV
       

Where's the line between what constitutes repetition
and what constitutes change? Right now I'm thinking forgetfulness
is just as good as careful planning, similar to how doing nothing
is usually just as helpful as quick, decisive action. Chance
actions. John Cage made detailed plans on chance. Yesterday
Natalie was working on a catchphrase. That's something
to do while waiting. Mine would be something like, "What are
we talking about again?" Natalie didn't like that one, and went for,
"oh yeah," I think. I'm terrible at remembering such things.

That's been my problem with nicknames, as well. I always
wanted one, and for a while I was going to be Dutch,
I've always thought, and then, a few years ago I met a guy
whose nickname was Dutch, and as I was telling him Dutch
also used to be my nickname, I remembered that my nickname
used to be Danish. I remember almost spitting my drink. It was
a job interview What a thing to remember at a job interview Well,
there you are. Maybe that should be my catchphrase, or maybe,
even better: "The sun's going to get really big and swallow the earth."
I imagine that could be a perfect caveat to most situations.

We're out on the lake. It's a beautiful day. For a moment, if you're not
thinking of anything, you can't be either shallow or deep. And then
you can say, "The sun's going to get really big
and swallow the earth." Ah, catchphrases. And if the you
at this point is Natalie, you could say "Oh yeah,"
and there we'd be. And all the little ripples around
the boat. We couldn't live without them, how the universe seems
made for us, which is called the Anthropic principle, weak (WAP)

or strong (SAP), depending. Douglas Adams, in response,
used the metaphor of a living puddle examining its shape.
We are here, and we ripple, then, caught in a gravity well. And then
I hear there are some planets, called Untethered Planets
that orbit nothing at all. To which Natalie replied, "Interesting,"
as she does now, a few years later, 2012. Which,
according to Mayan eschatology, was or wasn't to be our last.

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Copyright © 2014 John Gallaher All rights reserved
from West Branch
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission