We all have a lot of experiences, on a daily basis. Right now I am pondering about some subsidiary pieces of these experiences. I know this sounds funny, but it looks to me like we (most of the humans I know…and probably quite a few more…) look at the ‘experience’ as if it were the smallest indivisible block of human life. This sort of equates to what a paragraph is supposed to represent (i.e. a whole thought).
In any case, I am on the road. I am visiting some friends in a larger city and consequently there are a lot of small things which color (or sometimes even taint) my daily experiences a bit differently from my typical resting place in the north woods. These little changes (such as sitting in a different coffee shop, drinking different coffee, and watching different people go about their business) struck me in a strange way today.
You see, I have been doing some reading on 20th century Physics lately (…don’t ask…), and my current reflections seem like a neophyte’s metaphor for subatomic physics. That is, if any daily experience equates to an atom, then what are the corresponding subatomic particles, the protons and neutrons, even the electrons? I can see that this method of looking at our ‘reality’ opens up whole realms of possibilities. It also gives me a new perspective on the work of Marcel Proust (for me, it almost makes Swan’s Way sufferable!!). I can now see, within the construct of this metaphor that people like Proust and James Joyce were much akin to some of their historical contemporaries in particle physics.
It’s only that they (the authors) were interested in finding a way to see the edge of what consciousness is instead of the edge of what everything else is…
As another layer to this conceit about ‘sub-experience’ in the human realm, you only need to look at this post to see that I am obviously thinking about different kinds of thought that is my typical wont in this blog. Of course there are plenty of little differences in my current situation from my typical daily ‘product in this blog…maybe the fact that it is about 6:00AM has the greatest impact on this post. Maybe it is the fact that I am currently resting deep in the bosom of modern American suburban culture, all the edges of live are pretty well taken care of here, in comparison to where I live (which is closer to the raw edge of America, literally and figuratively). I suppose I can leave it to you to decide which posts have more worth (for you to read), BTW answer “E” is none of the above…
