the heel press

"What I know never changes, neither with day or night. And the past represents the future. It advances in a straight line. And when it's arrived, it has formed a full circle."*

In essence, I present you with a riddle that is impossible to solve and all I'm asking you to do is to not attempt to solve it.

One night, John and his friends had gone to a bar; John was coming back in after going out for a cigarette, and effectively disappearing for a while. His friend Frank looked up at him as John found his seat, and asked "Where did you go?"

John replied in a natural air that he had been on Neptune, and that he was still there, as if you might hear someone say such a statement in frankness.

I don't think Frank understood exactly what John had said. He didn't understand what was in John's mind that had created the response, but he understood that something had.

"My friend, it doesn't matter if I understood what you said. What matters is that we can fool ourselves into believing that we get 'it'."

They didn't get the same 'it', but that is exactly why and how they got the same 'it'. The 'it' that they got was accepting that they didn't get the same thing and that they didn't need to. And when they do that, they will have gotten the same thing.

Do you see the inherent contradiction?

Frank then said to John, as they enjoyed their beers, "The essential problem in quantum physics is that on a small enough scale things get fucked up. The number one reason is that you're dealing with such small events that when you try to measure something, you end up throwing everything off. You cannot measure the event without altering it. Fuck man, you can't even observe it without changing it"

I present you with a riddle that is impossible to solve and all I'm asking you to do is to not attempt to solve it.

This is how John wants to explain it: I want you (or someone) to understand what I'm saying without my having to say it, and the key to that process lies in exactly what you said.

"That's funny about quantum physics." John continued, "But listen to this; sometimes I have the same problem in my everyday life. I think I feel something, but the moment I express it, it becomes something else."

"I know exactly what you mean John," Frank confirmed. They shared an intense stare for just a second. "It's kind of like viewing a piece of art. I always tell myself 'don't try to understand it, just listen to it, watch it, and accept everything that it's saying as true.' Then you can look at the world it has created and judge if it's beautiful or not."

I understand something, but I don't know what that something is. I think I understand something but I can't express it.

Frank poured down some beer. All of their friends had radiated outward, slowly escaping Frank, John and their conversations. John poured down some beer.

Frank leaned in close, "There's a certain something. Je ne sais quoi. Imagine an 'idea' or 'feeling' so delicate that to try and express it would mean to destroy it. But listen, lemme tell you what's really important. I don't even need to express 'it'. I just need to believe that you understand 'it' as well."

"Exactly," John interrupted suddenly, "And it doesn't even matter if we understand the same thing. It only matters that we believe we understand the same thing."

Frank smiled, and whispered, "In fact, I don't even need to understand 'it' myself; I just need to believe that I do."

Frank knew that John had gotten it and John knew that Frank had it too. For a second, nothing in the world made sense. It was comforting, however, to believe that the other one noticed that too. That's the only sense either one could grip in the chaos.

I present you with a riddle, and the answer is not too complicated. When you have succeeded in not solving it, you will have gotten 'it'.

"Yes, you'll solve it. And you'll destroy yourself the moment you do. But when you do, you'll become like me where you'll be my brother."*