Reality. What a Concept. ~Robin Williams
Everything is really quite simple as long as you're focused on precisely where you are and what you're doing. Even if there's a bit of worry over the consequences of what may have happened before on what might happen next, it's all rather straightforward. Good word for it, 'straightforward.' What other choice is there?
However, when what you're precisely focused on is how things work and what's at the roots of it all, things can get more complex than even an intelligent person can wrap a head around. Hidden deep down below where subatomic particles pop into and out of reality for no seeming reason at all is a secret that shouldn't affect anyone. In fact it wouldn't affect anyone as long as everyone minded their own business focusing on where they are and what they're doing.
But of course, eventually someone will come along and muck it up making things a bit more interesting than usual. 'Interesting' is another good word often used to understate a certain trend toward a particularly nasty catastrophe.
Reality has a structure, hinted at back in Forward II, which may come as a shock to everyone except quantum physicists and Hindu mystics. Reality only appears to be straightforward. It also goes straightbackward, straightsideways, straightup and straightdown.
It even straightcurves and straightspirals all over the place.
Thankfully we're designed for just straightforward, keeping things simple, although there are occasional exceptions brought on by various mental disorders or controlled substances.
But there's a catch.
Imagine reality as a great big apartment building. Let's say we're in apartment 10A with a nice view of the river. Well, suppose some moron in 5F decides to investigate his bathroom plumbing with a good sized wrench just to see what would happen. Well your water pressure drops, doesn't it? And the poor sap in 4F is trying to understand why God is telling him to build a boat and gather all creatures great and small and can't He just make it stop raining?
You see how it works? Don't even get me started on what happened to the dinosaurs.
There are various utility lines and pipes behind the scenes connecting reality into one Great Everything, and while there are backups and circuit breakers and valves and such to keep one reality (apartment) from affecting another, sometimes God (The Super) isn't Paying Attention (watching the game with a beer and chips with the phone off the hook) or He just has it in for the poor sap in 4F (Who do you think gave the moron in 5F the wrench?).
The result, after the dust settles and the population comes back from the brink, is often a new religion with a new Book and a new God (the old Super having been fired by the Landlord.)
Next up, of course, is the amateur plumber.
However, when what you're precisely focused on is how things work and what's at the roots of it all, things can get more complex than even an intelligent person can wrap a head around. Hidden deep down below where subatomic particles pop into and out of reality for no seeming reason at all is a secret that shouldn't affect anyone. In fact it wouldn't affect anyone as long as everyone minded their own business focusing on where they are and what they're doing.
But of course, eventually someone will come along and muck it up making things a bit more interesting than usual. 'Interesting' is another good word often used to understate a certain trend toward a particularly nasty catastrophe.
Reality has a structure, hinted at back in Forward II, which may come as a shock to everyone except quantum physicists and Hindu mystics. Reality only appears to be straightforward. It also goes straightbackward, straightsideways, straightup and straightdown.
It even straightcurves and straightspirals all over the place.
Thankfully we're designed for just straightforward, keeping things simple, although there are occasional exceptions brought on by various mental disorders or controlled substances.
But there's a catch.
Imagine reality as a great big apartment building. Let's say we're in apartment 10A with a nice view of the river. Well, suppose some moron in 5F decides to investigate his bathroom plumbing with a good sized wrench just to see what would happen. Well your water pressure drops, doesn't it? And the poor sap in 4F is trying to understand why God is telling him to build a boat and gather all creatures great and small and can't He just make it stop raining?
You see how it works? Don't even get me started on what happened to the dinosaurs.
There are various utility lines and pipes behind the scenes connecting reality into one Great Everything, and while there are backups and circuit breakers and valves and such to keep one reality (apartment) from affecting another, sometimes God (The Super) isn't Paying Attention (watching the game with a beer and chips with the phone off the hook) or He just has it in for the poor sap in 4F (Who do you think gave the moron in 5F the wrench?).
The result, after the dust settles and the population comes back from the brink, is often a new religion with a new Book and a new God (the old Super having been fired by the Landlord.)
Next up, of course, is the amateur plumber.
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