From: Fred Duhly (duhly@mac.com)
Date: Tue Apr 16 2002 - 21:04:37 MDT
I found this a few months ago. What do you think it is?
The Elusive Spot
You know that game where someone tries to convince others of something?
Someone stares at a spot on the ceiling and soon another person will
start to look too. It seems to be a natural human reaction - indeed it
is perfectly logical! Why shouldn't we trust those around us -
especially when they have no reason to hurt us and mean us no harm. If
someone believes strongly in something they probably have their reasons.
People accept this and can then build upon it. This is a natural and
right course. How could humanity better itself if everyone had to think
through everything? We have to take at least some shortcuts right? Do
you think we could ever have things like light bulbs or aluminum cans if
everyone had to understand electricity and the Hall-Héroult process? Our
lives can be improved by contributing to a greater understanding, of
which an individual is but a component. When an honest person stares
intently at a Spot on the ceiling it is honest to wonder what they see.
What happens when the first person leaves and that second person is
still there wondering what the first person Saw? A third person comes
and starts looking at the Spot too. They don't know what they are
looking for, but that hardly matters (it truly does not) if they feel
their time searching was worthwhile. They look at the Spot and know in
their hearts that what they are doing is worthwhile. And thus it is.
So in time more people come and try to find out what is so interesting.
Perhaps they even talk about it. As time passes, perhaps they aren't
even looking at that Spot on the ceiling anymore. Maybe now they trace a
pattern on the wall with their finger and then sit quietly in
introspection, looking around, their eyes brushing that Spot and many
Others... only by this time it is merely a coincidence. An accident.
They have forgotten what they were looking for. But does it matter?
After all: what were they ever looking for? If the search was impossible
in the first place, does forgetting the original need really change
anything?
The implications of this get very complicated very quickly. The search
for that elusive Spot is indeed worthwhile in deep philosophical ways,
but one has to wonder about the waste of it all. The point of it all.
There is nothing there. There never was. Fortunately we don't care. But
what about the changes that happened to the original game? As people
came to play, they made up their own rules - their own variations.
Surely not all variations are equally good. Some we can learn from. Some
we can enjoy. Some we can honor for simply being played well. And some
are dumb.
Let's try to make the most of our time. There is a difference between
playing the game and wasting your life. I don't say this to keep you
from being hurt. You are happy tracing patterns on the wall. This waste
isn't screwing you. It's screwing me.
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