The Book of Knots - Jags
The Book of Knots - Jags
The Book of Knots - Jags
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What Wonderland Wants<br />
Go Ask Alice, I think she’ll know.<br />
--Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit<br />
Once upon a time there was everything and there was<br />
nothing. Everything looked like a big glowing plastic<br />
marble that was big (well, compared to nothing,<br />
which looked like a little tiny black plastic marble,<br />
but was really a four-dimensional hole you could<br />
fall into by looking at … or even thinking about too<br />
hard).<br />
And in between there was, well, there wasn’t<br />
anything—but we can’t say there was nothing, can<br />
we? <strong>The</strong>re were else-things that we don’t have words<br />
for.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n there was a bright flash <strong>of</strong> light like someone<br />
turned the bathroom light on while you were asleep<br />
and woke you up: that kind <strong>of</strong> bright. And there was<br />
a noise (well, if you could imagine a noise—there<br />
wasn’t air or sound waves yet) as loud as when you<br />
dropped your tray in the lunchroom and everyone<br />
laughed at you (if that never happened to you, then<br />
just know that there’s a special circle in hell for popular kids).<br />
And then BANG. <strong>The</strong>re were four dimensions (yes,<br />
time was the fourth. You can put down that Stephen<br />
Hawking book and close that PDF on super-string<br />
theory and those 34 other theoretical dimensions:<br />
this is a bedtime story, kid). And they were “<strong>The</strong><br />
Universe.”<br />
Everything and Nothing had joined in one big<br />
cataclysmic cosmic orgasm <strong>of</strong> creation and<br />
destruction.<br />
Anyone over 20 may have the worldly wisdom<br />
to know that doing things like this <strong>of</strong>ten has<br />
unintended consequences. Sometimes bad<br />
unintended consequences.<br />
<strong>The</strong> name <strong>of</strong> that consequence was Wonderland:<br />
Outside <strong>of</strong> reality was Kaos, which is a Greek word<br />
that I think is most poetically described as “angry<br />
want <strong>of</strong> being.” “Want <strong>of</strong> being” because it’s not in<br />
the universe and “angry” because, well, it’s never<br />
pleasant to be the odd one out.<br />
9<br />
<strong>Book</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Knots</strong> - <strong>The</strong> Caretakers