Conditional Reality

We made plows and raised oxen to pull them. In our wisdom we worked the ground, harnessing it to our will. We gave thanks for the food we ate from the seeds we sowed. Creatures who lived in the dark world under the surface spoke to us. Thanks for the roots, they said, and welcome home. We've saved a place for you. Those few of us who understood the words attempted to return the greeting. Most of us, hearing only gibberish, scratched our heads and stamped our feet, sending up tiny bursts of dust that settled back on our shoes.

Labels: Elements

The sun moved closer as the years wore on. At first none of us noticed, but after a few thousand years many of us agreed the summers had become much warmer and even the winters were not as cold as they had once been. We adapted by suppressing our automatic urge to shrink away from flames. We toughened up our skin, did without hair, and learned to enjoy bathing in the generous and benevolent body of the sun. Bonfires became feasts. Forest fires became bountiful harvests. No one whimpered. All became silent. We awaited the crackling end with quiet dignity.

Labels: Elements

Once a child expelled a breath with a hiccup, then changed her mind. She wanted the breath back and spent hours looking for it. No one could help her. Her teacher said life doesn't work that way. Her brother laughed at her. Her father pretended to find her breath behind her ear. Once it's gone, her mother told her, you can't get it back. The child nodded, but secretly believed her mother was wrong. The child grew up and became an old woman. One morning she heard a little boy sneeze. Oh! she said. My mother was right after all.

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When the snow and ice melted, the river rose. It submerged houses, upended cars, and displaced creatures. Some of us moved up into the hills to wait for the water to recede. When the land reappeared below us, it was soggy and strewn with debris. Our caves, however, were warm, dry, and cozy. Most of us returned to the land to rebuild. A few of us remained in our caves. We have been here for years. Sometimes we look down at where we used to live. We savor the melancholy of seeing our past spread out like an old dream.

Labels: Elements