Across time, humans have responded to the wild, chaos of life by telling each other stories to make sense of it all, or try to. We’ve gone from petroglyphs, to holy books, to Greek epic to internet – which became subsumed all other sources of information by becoming our map, our clock, our printing press, our camera, calculator, phone, our radio and TV.
It brought you everything you need. How to keep your fiddle fit, how to win at nasal warfare, how to bring back wooly mammoths, bring up kids, bring down drones, or power a bus with poop.
Even better, it made life a bowl of cherries. Presto! People had the food they need, the money they need, plus the faith, love, and strength they need. Books wrote themselves and found their own agent. Nothing stalled, burst, cracked or fell apart.
I’m interrupted by the present where things do burst, crack, and fall apart. It’s someone calling. Ah, Jamie from the National Polling Institute of something or other. She wants to speak to Ms. Weiss on questions of civic significance.” “She can’t come to the phone,” I say.
Then it’s Tom calling with questions of national defense. I tell him what I told Janie, “Ms. Weiss can’t come to the phone.” Civil significance will have to wait, as will national defense.
Then it’s the Cable Company offering I forget what, and Ms. Weiss still can’t come to the phone. Then it’s the National Whatever for Whatever Disease, and Ms. Weiss makes a donation.
I check the internet. There is a war. There is another war. Then another. Then a huge hunk of land formerly known as Antarctica dives off a cliff. I click again and find an Arizona rescue team found pigeon wearing rhinestone vest. If I had a nickel for every time I saw a pigeon wearing a rhinestone vest, I'd have one nickel. Which is the same amount last time they found a pigeon in a rhinestone vest.
I keep clicking and find a flying beluga whale. Really, I do. You can’t make this stuff up. Or you can, but I’m not. I click something else and find startling news re sea lions. Here it is. Sea lion counters in San Francisco — as in humans who count sea lions — recently tallied 2,000 of the whiskered creatures in the water alongside Pier 39. It was a new record.
I love the image of whales. I also like the concept that we make up stories to try to explain the chaos of our experience.
Baby beluga in the deep blue sea...