From the Pit

To kick things off, a quote from the climax of The Matrix: Revolutions...

Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something; something more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is - do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Or could it be for love?

Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although... only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?

Neo: Because I choose to...

That questioning rant from Agent Smith always struck me hard in the face... because I realized I had heard it before, in my own head. From when I first heard it, long ago, I have posed myself that question. I posed that question of Epicurus Sybariticus. I'm posing that question now of yet another who awakened recently from the slumber of my imagination. I posed that question of every wise mind, alive or written, that I could bother. And I got to say this: That answer, Neo's answer, while possibly the only valid answer, is also a pretty lousy answer.

The trouble is the will to go from drudgery to drudgery. The problem, to quote The Matrix: Reloaded, is choice. Here, in the pit, home to this dark other self I am sometimes, the issue is not so much purpose... it is the bewildering spectrum of choices all clamouring in loud voices for my allegiance, that cosmic arc that stretches from death to - who knows what - and back. It is the absolute reluctance to choose, bordering on despair fed by despite.

The pit yawns before me tonight. And I yawn right back, bleary eyed.

Oh well...

Lets end with a joke... if nothing else it'll keep those really worried parents from calling me in a hurry ;) This is one I heard from John Spencer's Leo McGarry on the West Wing:

This guy’s walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out. A doctor passes by, and the guy shouts up, "Hey, you, can you help me out?" The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.

Then a priest comes along, and the guy shouts up, "Father, I’m down in this hole. Can you help me out?" The priest writes a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on.

Then a friend walks by. "Hey, Joe, it’s me. Can you help me out?" And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, "Are you nuts? Now we’re both down here." The friend says,

"Yeah, but I’ve been down here before — and I know the way out."

So, cheesy heartfelt parables aside - off to find a friend we go...