Three Blind Men

I've been asked a couple times if I believe in intelligent design. Not as it's generally put forth; that there is something imposed from without to create order out of what would otherwise be chaos. Natural systems tend toward spontaneous and complex organization without any intervention. So in a way, there is a logical and ordered pattern, but it is not imposed from without. It is inherent in all things, kind of like the Mandelbrot set. It's a series of equations that, when graphed, show a repeating complex pattern that changes, but at the same time retains the same underlying equation. The graph has also been called the Mandelbrot Man, as it looks like a roly-poly man. He pops up on various scales of the graph, but is always there. I've always liked the idea that there is an equation that governs everything- we just can't understand it because of the sheer size of it. Looking at a small part, we can see the larger pattern, at least in part. It's kind of like the three blind men who encounter an elephant, and each grabs a different part of the elephant. One grabs the elephant's trunk, and concludes that an elephant is long and thin, like a big snake. Another grabs the elephant's leg, and concludes that an elephant is like a tree. The third grabs the elephant's ear, and decides that the elephant is like a giant leaf, wide and flat. All three are right, in part, but do not see the whole picture. And seeing that whole picture is not an easy thing to do.

Flashback No. 1

Reaching for a pen,

Time for blue flashback number one-

crowds parting, taxi called

A name and number on the

back of a business card-Thursday?

but that smacked of normality,

getting paranoid again

Far sound of water

dripping in the garage

sodium lamps casting their glare on

the hood, the silver pen (looks

expensive, like his watch)

the stack of papers

Waiting for my signature