Zippo

“I can see my whole life, start to finish.”

“There shouldn’t be a finish. You’re seeing it wrong.”

That trip. Together. Shouldn’t be something you could even talk about. He wanted to go one way, and I wanted to go one way. One and one makes two trips, but it's one.

Say again?

Second try. We were very different. But we are the same. Except he sees an endpoint, and I don’t. What are we talking about?

Third try. He thinks I can’t make sense of this. But he is wrong. The fact that there is an end to his life, his trip, is the key. That shouldn’t be.

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We’re in this together. No matter what our understanding of existence. Because no matter how different we are, our trip is the same. As always. Banal explanations notwithstanding. Now, about that endpoint. I’m sure he doesn’t like it. But he insists it is there. I mean, if you could see your whole life, would you want an endpoint? Just saying.

Look at our trips. Busy. Busy. Busy. So much planning. So many choices. We see the trees and not the forest. Some of us don’t even see trees.

But I know what you are thinking. How could we take a trip together if he has an endpoint? Smart question. He makes me do all the heavy lifting.

Which is hardly fair. If he were honest, he would admit that he hates having an ending to his trip. So, he should accommodate me and find a way to get rid of his endpoint. But he won’t.

So, take any trip imaginable, and in the end, everyone who believes it ends is looking at a tree and not the forest. Everything we do never ends. We only think it does.

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Ok. I can see that this is as clear as mud, and you’re thinking, “Give me back my two minutes!” I hear you. Do you think that reading this is just entertainment?

How silly is that? Whenever we read or see something we really like, we think “This is the one! Finally.” We don’t say the words, but it's truth to us.

But then truth wouldn’t be truth if it didn’t apply to everyone.

Everyone? You ask. Such a truth doesn’t exist. How do you know? Only people with endpoints talk like truth doesn’t exist. Do you have an endpoint?

You don’t want to talk about it. I understand.

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Still reading? Why?

If you are happy with having an endpoint, I wish you well. You can stop reading now. I haven’t got anything for you.

Okay, now for the rest of you. It's because of you that I must go to the trouble of writing this. Yes, you put me out. I said I do the heavy lifting. I meant it.

Reality check: Testing systems. If truth exists Blah Blah Blah. Fail.

Second try: Truth exists. Only nominal to profile…hanging…trying recovery procedures…Oops, so bad, so sad, crash and fail.

Third try:           zippo. Getting somewhere. We’re live.

The problem with truth is that we shouldn’t have to talk about it.

If we do, that means there must be something seriously wrong. I’m not just on a trip with a friend, I’m on it with everyone, the forest, remember?

And this business of calling some people nut cases, or even millions of people wrong is wrong.

It’s a simple thing. We don’t talk about the air we breathe unless there is something wrong with it.

So, the truth is that there is something wrong with how we live. All those trips we are all on. We need something from outside. Why?

Having to talk about truth means that there is something seriously wrong that we can’t fix ourselves! More heavy lifting. For me. Again.

So it's hopeless? We can’t fix what is wrong. But see, this is our biggest problem. We are so hung up on ourselves.

The great divide: why most people are blind. Most people have endpoints because they believe we must fix every problem.

But do you see the absurdity of this?

Did you have a say in being born?

Did you pick your race or your parents?

Do you have special knowledge about anything that no one else has?

Then you can’t fix this problem any more than I can.

Relieved of the burden of truth, the burden of making sense of things that forces us to believe in endpoints, that forces us to believe in what is finite instead of what is infinite, it's a fool's errand. All we have to give up is our pride. Admit that we need help from outside.

The trip that everyone is on has no endpoint. Why waste energy and time making sense of such a serious problem as knowing the truth about life? On your own, no less!

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Now, I am going to contradict myself. Yes, you read me right. Oh, don’t make me defend myself. Unless you didn’t understand anything I wrote before! More heavy lifting for me.

What makes us see that there is a problem in the first place? What would make me write this piece you are reading now? Um, let’s see. Light is both particles and waves. If I remember that YouTube video I saw while I hoped my wife would care for our screaming child, sub-atomic particles can change their trajectory based on whether they are observed. Did I get that right?

So what do you say? Well, how much more stuff do we need to discover before we realize that the universe is not some closed box? That stuff happens that we have no control over.

What? We have this enormous universe, but being the pipsqueaks that we are, everything is figured out already. There can’t be anything out there that can make sense of everything just because we can’t do it! Oh, such enormous pride!

Because you or I have no special revelation and because we can’t make sense of the ultimate truth about the trips we are all on…

It is lobotomy time.

Slice and Dice.

Blame.

Laugh.

Throw up your hands and have another beer.

Joke and say whatever.

Shrug your shoulders.

Say, “I’m not afraid of the endpoint I’ve chosen.”

That last one, boy, it’s a killer. Literally. Because the choices we make do have consequences. Life teaches us that all the time.

So now, after all this heavy lifting, you’ll ask me what my secret sauce is, my raison d'être, my special revelation.

Remember the first rule of truth: it's zippo. Zippo for me, zippo for you.

Oh, I’ll break my own rules one last time. You know, that particle that changes when observed in the open-not-closed-box. Well, if you do an internet search, you’ll find it—two search words: Roman Catholic.