Pieces of a Hole
Fragment 1:
When something becomes tangible, when a mask is lifted, then it loses its magical quality and disappoints you.
Fragment 2:
And so of course I told him what I thought about it, paying little attention to the voice of warning in my head.
Fragment 3:
When people think that they are something, then others begin to think that they are as well. For example, when a kid believes he is cool, and he really thinks that, and he acts as if he were, then people begin to think he is as well. So it's not hard to pretend to be something you aren't and get others to believe it. It just takes a shallow mind to really think of oneself as something one is not.
Fragment 4:
I sat at the end of the wharf, my toes dangling inside the ice cold water. The day was bright and the water clear. My toes looked white and bent diagonally under the water.
Fragment 5:
You know, I can't write a damned thing right now, and it's really pissing me off! I mean, I get started on a few sentences, and then it stops, it stops. How can it stop? Water never abruptly stops its flow; it slowly solidifies, just as it slowly melts. So how can I melt and be like water?
Fragment 6:
"How can I hurt you?", Trent asked from his usual seated position in the big blue armchair, leaning back with his legs crossed and his lean fingers pressed together at the tips.
Jonathan looked up from the patterns of the Persian rug and thought for a moment. "Well, you could stand up and sock me in the jaw, for one."
"No, no. You see, you would recover quite quickly from physical pain. How can I really hurt you?"
"Well . . ."
"By damaging your spirit, that's how. That could effect your whole life, and your body as well, since the mind has control over the body. But how can I damage your spirit? Through words, of course. You know the old saying that children say to each other to ward off words: 'Sticks and stones' and the whole bit. But they miss the whole point. Sticks and stones definitely CAN break your bones, however, they can only get the outside, never damage your inner being. Yet with words, they go deeper. They work from within, ripping at the mind, soul, and ego."
"Well, I suppose that's correct. But, say as you will, Trent, I would rather be beaten to death by words than by an iron pipe!"
Trent did not reply. His mind, led by his previous thoughts, was already running along new ground, sniffing new territory. After a while of silence, Trent again spoke:
"Words are such deep workers indeed. I see it this way: you get an idea and you wish to penetrate someone else with this idea. So someone comes along, and you heave your spear at them. Unfortunately, it is rather indirect and rarely hits its mark. So, to be able to strike your idea in at closer range, you must entrap your victim, you must draw them into your idea. You do this by fabricating a story about the idea and entangle it so much that the idea is completely invisible. You then draw in the victim with words, which dance about them and push them towards your idea, so craftily, so carefully, until they stumble upon your idea almost unknowingly, they even think that the idea is their own."
Jonathan listened with delight to the ramblings of Trent's bass voice. Trent would do this all the time: throw his ideas at him. Sometimes they would be as profound as if from the Buddha himself; at other times, they would be simple.
Trent watched Jonathan for his reaction to his ideas. Jonathan was his guinea pig for his thoughts and ideas.
"What are you thinking?", Trent asked.
"About how prolific you are with your ideas."
"Yes, it all comes from this thing here." Trent tapped his temple with a long finger. "The mind is so powerful. Did you ever realize that all reality exists within each person's mind?"
"I fail to understand."
"What I mean is this: if you believed that there was a green egg on top of my head, then, to you, it would be there."
"But it wouldn't really."
"Why not? Maybe it's an invisible egg. This also applies with things which do 'exist'. If a man is walking through a forest, but he doesn't believe that there are any trees, then to him, there are none."
"Well, then what if he bumps into one?"
"Ahh, good question. But that is only physical contact, not mental contact. For instance, we are touching millions of dust particles and bacteria when we touch this table here. But we have no idea they are there."
"But we DO know that they are there."
"And how is it that we know that? Because we have SEEN it, correct? We have seen these minute beings in our microscopes, so our mind knows they exist. But now I ask you, what about things we haven't seen? What about God and Satan? Do they exist? My point is, we will never be able to truly know whether they are there or not, for they are unseeable and unprovable. The only way to make them real is by believing, you understand? We may have actually come into contact, both physical and mental, with these beings, yet we cannot know for we don't see it."