Jibril looked the age he would be now. His hair was long than he kept it around the time he died, but shorter than when we first met. Being two years my senior, the sandy blond had faded to a dusty Grey. His savagely intelligent eyes were framed by lines that read like esoteric charts to forgotten lands. His suit was not as tattered as the one I remember him wearing in his last days.
We were at some evening gathering where Tich Nhat Hanh was supposed to speak, but he did have that stroke, and, instead was on side-show display. His spasmed movements spoke of severed and damaged brain wires. There was no serenity to be offered by this. Outside, the world was starting to burn down.
"As you can see, I'm still alive," Jibril said as we attempted to look away from the spectacle before us. "But they're coming for me tonight, and then it will be the End of Days."
"You know I don't believe in that shit," I said with a bit of a snort. In the years since my mother's and the bruja's respective deaths, my ability to take anything on anything other than analysis and inquiry had dropped drastically.
"The Universe doesn't care what you believe," Jibril said coldly. A mantra I've heard on both the science and religious sides of the aisle.
Two minutes left and the world is gonna end...
Yeah, and that's fine as it's gonna go, Robbie. That kind of logic has a name.
ReplyDeleteIn one of Duncan's books, 'The River Why' I think, one character laughs when the other states his disbelief in god: "Doesn't matter, He believes in you"
I gotta say, as a person immersed in science all my life, sometimes holding a beating heart in my hand, that's fine. It that what gets you through the day, etc, ad nauseaum, fine. If that gets you through the day.
What a Rocky Mountain day here....first totally clear, building temps to the 80's, the in the west the thunder clouds forming, rain then hail, the temp dropping 25 degrees. It was a classic.
Cheers, pal.
Mike
I've heard that one. Neil Degrasse Tyson has said; "Science doesn't care what you believe" and a book on avalanches did one of my favorite quotes about the Backcountry of "the mountains don't care". Relativity, neh?
DeleteAlmost the same here, actually. Summer has certainly arrived and it is lovely.
Take care...
Hey, didn't know or more likely forgot, that you had interest in avalanches....logical considering where you live. But have you ever heard of, met or read of Tom Murphy, late of Colorado down south, Crested Butte. I met Murph back in '70 in Portland, and he lived with Cary and I for a few months when he moved to Alaska and on to Hatcher Pass in '74 or so.
DeleteThe name sounds familiar. Perhaps you'd mentioned him before in one of our correspondences. I may do some poking around.
DeleteRegardless of one's religious or spiritual beliefs, I think that it is hard to refute the argument that the world does not give a damn about what as believe :)
ReplyDeleteI meant to say "universe", not "world" :)
DeleteYeah, and that's fine as it's gonna go, Robbie. That kind of logic has a name.
ReplyDeleteIn one of Duncan's books
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