Fred Steeves
28th February 2013, 00:27
Imagine with me for a moment. Your first moment of awareness, straight from birth, is of a floor, a ceiling, 4 walls, and pitch black darkness. You spend your first 20 or so years in this manner, and all "appears" normal to you of course because after all, this is what life is.
One day while fumbling happily around in the darkness, you come across an object lodged in a corner you have never noticed before, you don't know what it is, but it's a screwdriver.
For a couple more years you explore this strange new object with your sense of touch. There is sharp, dull, and smooth in the middle. Then one day an incredibly wild idea rushes over you...Stick the sharp end into one of the walls, just to "see" what happens...
Casually picking at the wall, suddenly the sharp end breaks through something, you wince in pain as your knuckles are bashed, and you instantly withdraw to tend the wound. At the same time though, your eyes, which you never knew you had, immediately close in repulsion of an invader. Light.
Once you are able to open them again, you're curious at the source of this strange thing you made happen that not only made your knuckles bleed, but made the eyes you didn't know you have hurt. There is something outside of your own existance, there is something else "out there". Your box is not all there is. (Ohhhhh S**T)
In trepididation, you peek through this hole you have "inadvertantly" created, and you behold a sight that shakes you to your very core. There is a whole nother world you have never in your wildest dreams imagined existed, right there, but only seen through your itty bitty hole. Besides light, there are different smells, different air to breathe, colors, sounds, and........ EVEN OTHERS!!!
You recoil in utter horror immediately, but after some time, curiosity gets the best of you again, and you look, but this time from a more stable grounding. "What is this strange other world" you wonder, as you tentavively pick up the screwdriver again, to widen the hole for a better look.
Now, the question that will eventually begin to boggle your fragile eggshell mind is, how much more do you dare whittle away at making this tiny little hole larger and larger, before you are confronted with the choice of either tossing caution to the wind and entering it, come what may, or staying safely snug in that comfy little box that you love and know so well?
The Lady? Or The Tiger? Decisions Decisions...
One day while fumbling happily around in the darkness, you come across an object lodged in a corner you have never noticed before, you don't know what it is, but it's a screwdriver.
For a couple more years you explore this strange new object with your sense of touch. There is sharp, dull, and smooth in the middle. Then one day an incredibly wild idea rushes over you...Stick the sharp end into one of the walls, just to "see" what happens...
Casually picking at the wall, suddenly the sharp end breaks through something, you wince in pain as your knuckles are bashed, and you instantly withdraw to tend the wound. At the same time though, your eyes, which you never knew you had, immediately close in repulsion of an invader. Light.
Once you are able to open them again, you're curious at the source of this strange thing you made happen that not only made your knuckles bleed, but made the eyes you didn't know you have hurt. There is something outside of your own existance, there is something else "out there". Your box is not all there is. (Ohhhhh S**T)
In trepididation, you peek through this hole you have "inadvertantly" created, and you behold a sight that shakes you to your very core. There is a whole nother world you have never in your wildest dreams imagined existed, right there, but only seen through your itty bitty hole. Besides light, there are different smells, different air to breathe, colors, sounds, and........ EVEN OTHERS!!!
You recoil in utter horror immediately, but after some time, curiosity gets the best of you again, and you look, but this time from a more stable grounding. "What is this strange other world" you wonder, as you tentavively pick up the screwdriver again, to widen the hole for a better look.
Now, the question that will eventually begin to boggle your fragile eggshell mind is, how much more do you dare whittle away at making this tiny little hole larger and larger, before you are confronted with the choice of either tossing caution to the wind and entering it, come what may, or staying safely snug in that comfy little box that you love and know so well?
The Lady? Or The Tiger? Decisions Decisions...