Cat's Cradle

A stop at the cosmic laundromat

Look—I made all this for you.

I spun up this whole world. And put other people in it, so you wouldn’t be lonely. I made some annoying ones too, for you to rally against. Your purpose in opposition and love, tightly suspended. I put a sky above you so you could have something to look at on your breaks from the relentless toil. I splattered stars like craftsman’s paint to lead you back to me, the way Hansel and Gretel did, except I made that up, too.

I did all this because I love you. Symphonies you can move to, fire to warm and destroy. Water to nourish and drown, earth to sow and split. Air to suspire as well as to spin mercilessly. Dust storms to suffocate, and cenotes to plunge.

I waited an eternity in nothing. Can you even imagine that—nothing? It’s not just the absence of something, you, who came from a world of things—may think. It’s not that, here, I will try to explain.

It’s just one big “suchness.” With no object of reference. Primordial. Just the adjective, I can only use adjectives without their nouns—oh, this is difficult. Only process, with no product.

I did not make you, or any of this, because I needed to. It simply happened because it couldn’t not happen, awareness of it inseparable from the happening itself. And it happened, simply because it was more beautiful to exist than not for a little while. You go to the theaters on weekends, you get it. Just because you go to the movies doesn’t mean you’ve really traveled somewhere else.

The harmony created by many is no different from that of the original One. That, you have to understand, even if that is the only thing that reaches you through this molasses of limiting language. For now, that is all I have to say, the words are heavy and costly.

Although you won’t get any of this through words. You’ll have to piece together the whispers in the crackling wood with those of the crashing waves and whistling crickets. There will be a space where we can meet, but only if you get quiet enough.

I’m just talking to myself as usual again, aren’t I?

I guess I should do some laundry.

Put some quarters in it.

It makes a nice noise.

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