Does anyone know how to fly this thing?
"Wherever we go, we are friends" -Sloth and Manatee
Many things go on at once.
Here's an example.
Say you are driving in your car, and you come to a stoplight. It is red. (is the red light in a stoplight at the bottom or the top?)
So, you wait, and soon the light turns green. Or, the green light at the bottom goes on and the top light goes off (there's your answer to the order).
So, the light is the thing that said to go. But you are the one who is doing the actual going. Using your car, which rolls around on wheels.
So the light is a symbol, right? It's just giving you a signal that means something, and then you roll around. Which is a thing you could do with or without the light.
The light is a symbol, and you and your car are - you. Doing a thing.
Hang on, let's see what the Tardigrades are up to:
Okay back to driving, which the Tardigrades will maybe do, now that they have a GO button.
The stoplight is like a cell phone or a screen. It represents something, but it isn't that thing.
This is part of what breaks our brains with the Internet and other Virtual or Digital Things. Clicking on a lil thumb isn't really liking something. An optimized still picture of someone isn't them. You can't just do the stoplight, you have to really go somewhere.
You can maybe call people using your phone screen thing and tell them you're not coming, because the light turned green and that represents going there, and you have decided that's good enough.
And then they don't talk to you anymore.*
*Partly because you didn't come to see them and partly because you are talking weird.
Maybe we ought to ask ourselves periodically if we are dealing with things, or symbols for things. A picture on a screen is not that thing. It is its own thing. Maybe it is a painting that shows how someone experienced something. Maybe it is a movie about a thing.
Maybe it is a picture meant to fool you into thinking something, or believing something. That's not a thing. That's someone's version of a thing. It's like a red or green light, and not your car.
More copies of the first Sloth and Manatee book are in! That was quick! In honor of this occasion here is the dedication at the front of the book:
"This book is dedicated to all the creatures large and small, all of us cruising around, pondering the world, doing whatever we do with the bits of star stuff that we've been given, gazing in wonder at the beautiful and strange things we encounter.
The tardigrades and ants and birds and whales and hermit crabs and frantic squirrels and busy lizards and cuttlefish and octopus and yes, even the rocks and the ocean and definitely the moon. And the Distant Cow. And the Frog of Knowledge. And the moth who wants to be seen, just for a moment. And the baby bird who needs a little encouragement. And the transforming caterpillar.
All of us, together, doing our best, hoping, trying, being the shiniest bits of stars that we know how to be, being friends to one another just like Sloth and Manatee. This is for you."
Maybe you have a friend who is far away or who you are thinking of. Maybe you could send them a note, or a book, or a postcard. Faraway friends are friends. You are a friend!
Okay! That's enough nonsense for now.
May you hear from a far-off friend, may you make friends with someone nearby, won't you be my neighbor? -Betsy
HELLO AND THANKS FOR READING!!
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