Truth is on a Napkin, Beauty is in a Rock
9-22-03, by Derek Hugen, sorry Keith
I was wondering what truth looks like, if it has a defined shape to it. Maybe a square. I would like it if truth was a square. Sometimes I want someone to write down truth on a napkin and hand it to me. I could be sitting in a coffee shop or a café or something, and someone could just walk by and toss me a napkin of truth. I don't think you could do that with beauty, though. Beauty is annoying that way. To find beauty you have to stare at a rock or something. I don't like to look at rocks. I think I closed off the part of myself that likes to look at rocks. I don't mind thinking about rocks though. Sometimes I wonder if I am just thinking about some perfect form of rock in heaven, remembering what that one looked like. Sometimes I doubt rocks altogether. I think that maybe we just make up rocks so that we have something to sit on, or build houses out of. If I had a house that was made out of rocks, I would probably put pictures on the rocks that I would have something to look at if I was sitting down and thinking about something like the linear nature of time, or the precious egotism of systemized ethics, or how if we are living in a constantly expanding universe, isn't it somewhat counterproductive to be dieting? After all, we were meant to subdue the earth. I think that is something that could be written on a napkin. . .
I want truth to be square. Truth couldn't be a circle because circles are too efficient. I don't like that about circles. That's why I like squares, because squares go out of their way to hit really pointless points. Straight lines are intimidating. In math class I draw my lines with arrows on the ends. This is to remind me that straight lines are out to kill me. I think that beauty can be a straight line sometimes. I hate beauty; it's stupid. It's too efficient. But then I have to stare at rocks to see it, and that isn't efficient. It doesn't make sense. Ethics should be whatever we can write on a napkin and hand to someone, because rocks are just too big to use for currency, and I always feel like Sisyphus when I'm around them.
Rocks are way too big. I always feel like there is going to be an avalanche of rocks, and that it will overtake me and kill me. I don't think that about napkins. That is because rocks are heavier than napkins. You can't use a napkin to hold down a rock. The napkins would just blow away. But rocks can hold down napkins. I think that isn't good, though. You shouldn't use a rock to hold down a napkin. There should be napkins floating across the sky, both driving and chasing all the seven winds, unfettered by the rocks that hold them down. After all, napkins need their freedom.
Sometimes I think its stupid that Solomon asked for a wise and discerning heart, when he could have asked for Ecclesiastes to end by the second or third chapter. |
