Silent Sunday

Tension

The world is all gates,
all opportunities,
strings of tension
waiting to be struck.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ineffable

When you notice a cat in profound meditation,

The reason, I tell you, is always the same:

His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation

Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:

His ineffable effable

Effanineffable

Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

– T.S. Eliot

Start off the year on a bit of nonsense: The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter…

Coat of Many Colours

I met in the street a very poor young man

who was in love.

His hat was old, his coat worn,

his cloak was out at the elbows,

the water passed through his shoes,

and the stars through his soul.

˜

J’ai rencontré dans la rue un jeune homme très pauvre

qui aimait.

Son chapeau était vieux, son habit était usé;

il avait les coudes troués;

l’eau passait à travers ses souliers

et les astres à travers son âme.

– Victor Hugo

WYSIWYG

K’12 Ink & watercolour sketch. Ceci n’est pas un chat.

I’ve always been fascinated by the gaps.

You know, there’s a blind spot,bang in the middle of your field of vision, but you don’t see a blank there, your brain covers it up. And you only see colour in a very small part of the picture, just where you’re focussing; the rest is gray. But your brain colours it in, or just lets you believe it’s in colour.

We only experience very small bits of the world, and extrapolate the rest. I  only  see  this  corner  now, but I imagine the rest of the room will be there  when  I  turn  around.  I can hear the cat in the kitchen. Rather, I hear noises,  and  I  think  it’s  the  cat in what I remember as the kitchen. I assume that if I get up, I’ll find the kitchen, and probably even the cat – but do I really know that?

What if the world is only what we perceive? What if things come into existence as we approach them, and are erased when we turn around or walk away? Maybe we live in a small bubble of reality we carry around with us.

I have to accept I can only check whether reality lives up to my expectation. If the kitchen is there when I go fetch a drink, I suppose it’s enough. I do worry about the cat, though…

Sorry, I know this must sound strange to you. But life isn’t easy when you live in a computer simulation.

* * *

My second attempt at answering T.Mastgrave’s philosophical story challenge: Knowledge.

Easter Emergency

I don’t like painting eggs, I want to go home,
Said the girl with the curls to the little blue gnome.
But I need these eggs painted, the gnome wept its plea.
If they’re not done tomorrow, I’ll never be free!

There are too many eggs, there’s no way we can paint
them all by tomorrow! The gnome fell in faint.
But the girl didn’t panic, she knew just what to do,
She called to her friend, with thing one and thing two.

With little cats A – Z and the voom
Hat-cat got those eggs painted, and lifted the gloom.

And in case you’re not sure just who sits on this mat:
It’s a dog with a blog, not the cat in the hat.

Once in the vein of nonsense verse, I couldn’t resist this Dr Seussish prompt in the current round of 100wcgu.

Which Witch?

Another rare sight: a flying witch

How do I know it’s a witch?

See the flaming cat on the broomstick? Only witches have cats like that. Bertie could have told you that. Speaking of which. Why do curled up dogs and cats always look so cozy and warm?

Makes you want to curl up yourself, doesn’t it?

Just can’t bring myself to close the flame painter.