The Electric River

 

In the early morning I also greet a Great Turtle.
As the day wears on I still have to dry-off on the 
shore; though with a better blanket than I used to use,
because I haven't learned to swim very well yet in 
the river where the Great Turtle seems to me to live...

And I also thank the Creator in the manner of a heathen...

I understand that to this day that no one has seen
farther than the awakening, and I know that this is
not possible also, but I also hear the words of a Hopi
elder who said- though the approaching tidal wave cannot
be stopped, we can try to ease the pain of it...

An early memory is of kindergarden and a giant man
who came to test the children and tangled his head
in the american flag hanging over the doorway. The
children all laughed. He tested the children separately 
with a guessing game while he sat behind a screen. He 
gave us a toy after the test. That was my early memory,
a test... 

My child world was split in two also...

In university I revolted against the mechanical process 
of turning out 'model citizens' and ran away to Arizona 
to live in the mountains for a while. Do you remember 
that old Disney story "Pepe the dancing
chihuahua" ? It was like that... 

Then I became a watchmaker and the old watchmakers told 
me great stories and I learned to care for the oldest of 
watches and repair them so that they kept good time. 
Then when everything became quartz and cheap and time sped up 
so that no  one listened to the old watches anymore, 
I took another path,... 

In the high glass towers in a big city where
one can see a microcosm of the world, I made that microcosm
work for me as much as I worked for it. I learned all
its languages as best I could, and eventually my path
was lead to that great river...
 
I saw how there were languages within languages and within 
those languages there were others. I saw how people tangled 
these languages up to make something that resembled a blanket.
The each had their own blankets and they were all
made of the same material. Some people's blankets were
so similar that they weaved them together into a
bigger blanket and these people all huddled together under it;
but if your blanket wasn't like theirs and couldn't fit
theirs, they wouldn't let you come under their big blanket...

So there were a bunch of big blankets and smaller ones,
and they paid me to find a way to force-fit them together.
So I untangled the edges so they would weave together 
but it was usually only temporary. I remember how my sister
held onto her blanket until it wore away and was nothing 
but the satin edge, which she clinged to for comfort.
People like their blankets and don't give them up easily.
They don't try very hard to untangle them either.

Now I am awake both day and night and every day, though 
in the early morning is when I see the most clearly. I see 
the beautiful river and the danger in the river tides. 
I see how everything drinks from the river; some using cups, 
others using spoons and some using just their mouths; I see 
how others don't see the river at all, and how some see it 
but lead others away from it so they can sell them the water 
from it, and I see how some lead others into the desert to 
die of thirst. I see also how some worship the river, and how 
some just take care of it, and how others pollute it... 

I see how some lived near the river made water wheels and 
took only what they needed. I see how some made great dams
and sent the water where it wasn't, and then, someone figured
out how to change the river into an electric river and they 
sent some of that electric water into houses which were far
away from the water river, and they learned also how to send
messages on that electric water by slapping it around, but 
then they learned how to send messages in bottles in the
electric water... 

But it was all just water; electric or otherwise, the rules
were the same. So some people polluted the electric water, and 
others dammed the electric water to sell to others and so on...

Then the quantum physicists made all sort of stories about 
the electric water and they weaved electric blankets out of 
electric languages, which got all tangled just like the ones the
people in the glass towers made out of words. And they cling
to those electric blankets with the same intensity. They
form blanet parties, and if your electric blanket doesn't 
fit theirs, they don't let you under their big blanket.

But I also see a great flood coming soon, can you see it as well ? 
It's made of words and water and electricity and ...