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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

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