:: In the spirit of Philip K. Dick... ::

Thursday, August 22, 2002

My friend Nate returned from an extended stay in the wilderness. He spent 5 months growing a beard, as well as refurbishing trails and such. The strange thing is, that some of his fellow volunteers in the woodland had last names like "Camp", "Kindling", and "Drinkwater". This rather odd coincidence made us wonder. There's a certain cliche school of self-centered thought which claims that only you exist, and others around you are merely constructs - agents to facilitate or impede your progress along the path to your ultimate destiny. What if that destiny were written by some sort of celestial writer (the fates, gods from any number of pantheons, etc.)? Perhaps, as Nate put it, the author of his life was getting lazy, and couldn't come up with any decent names for the peripheral characters (he was an English major).

We then realized that his last name is "Forst". Not "Forest" - but close enough that it would require minimal thought on the part of this cosmic literary hack. This would mean, however, that Nate himself was merely another ancillary individual with an apropos name in the life of the protagonist.

Maybe we're all just here for context. Some of us human beings might be better developed or fleshed out a little more, but we're still part of the supporting cavalcade.

Anyway... it's pretty trite, but it's a good argument against ego-centrism. Plus that "fleshed out" pun was really satisfying.

Posted by morland @ 04:04 PM

:: Comments ::

I remember when Nate and I went our freshman retreat in Highschool and he was deathly afraid of being bitten by a snake. Now has has spent much time in the loving embrace of nature and has grown a beard. Please Morland, I beseach you to enlight me regarding the particular qualities of said Beard.

Posted by: Spernoga on August 26, 2002 10:03 AM

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