What We Know

This is what we know.
There is a God. There is not one. That no man is an island and it’s every man for himself. That you are what you repeatedly do, what you eat, or perhaps what you repeatedly eat. There are two kinds of people, but that’s as far as we can agree. There is Nature and there is Nurture and that they must be blamed. We know that babies are an upset people but wouldn’t you be. We know that Love is big. It’s a big thing. That whatever doesn’t kill us does something preferable to killing us, sometimes. Killing, we know about that. We know living people but not dead ones. We know it’s all been done before, and will be done again. We know our parents sort of, and the way children look when they’re sleeping. We know Eating is a good idea. We know Sex is a just as good or maybe better idea. Or not. We know that, too. We mostly know clocks and not Time. That everyone out there wants to Love and Hurt us and that we should be wary of and open to that. That nothing can be unlearned, unfelt, or undone, but there are plenty of late-night informercials that say otherwise. That one day all of these bodies we may every-now-and-then hate will start to die and we’re going to wish we had them back the way they are. We know how to fix things if our dads show us. Or not dads. Forget dads. We know how to break things, also. If our dads show us. We know Literature and Science and Law are important, but so is sitting in a bath tub indefinitely. We know how lovers smell, if we’re lucky. If we’re lucky, this is what we know.

— 2012