Thursday 23 August 2007

Rotating complexity causing water to boil in a pink wind

I woke up this morning and noticed the world wasn't where it had been last night. This troubled me, and it was all I could do just to get out of bed. I'm sure this had nothing to do with Bessy seeing a mythological creature during the night and Margaret chasing after it. The creature doesn't appear to have returned. Neither has Margaret. And the world's not righted itself yet.

Felix was exploring the mythical status of his own mind a few days ago, and discovered to his delight that his thoughts were as unsubstantiated - but as critical to the world - as they had been last time he explored, sometime in the Middle Ages. I said this sounded like Science had never arrived. He said Science was just another myth and, to make his point, didn't bother putting his kettle on the gas stove. The water boiled.

George once moved the axis of the earth, he tells me, by blowing warm air into a pink t-shirt attached to a brand new washing line. I asked if such an activity could reverse the rotation caused by mythical creatures being chased by a woman. George paused as he applied his lipstick long enough to signal that this was not the sort of thing he wished to discuss. So he didn't.

Cookie was still there. At least, in relation to the position she was at yesterday, if not in relation to the rest of the world. I asked her if she considered her position on earth to bear any consequence on the location of her spiritual friends in the yew tree. She looked at me rather oddly and said that in order for there to be a consequence there had to be an alternative, otherwise the two were inextricably linked, and therefore could not be a consequence of each other. This was quite complex for Cookie and far too complex for me, so I went to bring our first patient in.

So there we are: there's a mythical creature running around, the world has relocated, there's no need for a fire to boil water, and Cookie's gone complex on me. Perhaps that's why one shouldn't give up on myths just yet, if that was what one was thinking of doing.

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