Quandary

by mark moore arcata, 3-4-2010

considering what we had to consider, in view of all consequences and ramifications, it is no wonder that we wondered what to do and when to do it. plagued by diminishing information, we felt the crushing weight of ignorance as it compressed our trifling knowledge to an odd pulpy minutia. every answer to every question we asked induced increasing incongruity and bewilderment, because the answers were always more complicated than the questions; and while the answers were stated with confidence and tinged authority, they apparently contained both truth and falsehood, and furthmore we agreed less and less about which was which. ambivalence was not a luxury we could afford; our uncertainty was sufficiently pervasive that no options were apparently available. thus our initial inspiration fermented into inertial constipation. a fiercely radiating intensity evolved momentarily around a specific aspect of our plight, or so it was speculated by the unrespected circumspect among us; however, the subject remained nebulous, the type of intensity could not be specified with useful accuracy, nor could we extrude any vapor of causality. but as a direct result of this derelict of whimsy we briefly achieved an air of solidarity in the fading sense that we each may have wondered more intently what indeed was the source of all this wonderment and dearth of assertiveness vis-a-vis our mysterious quandary. a physical entity in our precise vicinity possibly shifted in position or transfigured negligibly, because there was a brief alignment of our attention to this detail. unfortunately, the event was ephemeral, and not a sliver of evidence remained to cement our confidence it its reality. yet there is only minute collective doubt that we all cast sudden inquisitive glances at each other randomly, implicitly begging to ask whether or not anything at all may or may not have happened. wherewith, i began to believe that some of us thought very coherently that a singular member of our group had begun to think independently and settle upon tentative conclusions without substantial or persuasive material proof of anything whatsoever. i cannot claim that there seemed to be nothing at all, since there may be someone who could disprove that it seemed that way. however, it may have seemed to someone like there was actually nothing at all. nonetheless, there is always more to a baked good than a list of ingredients, and this extraordinary subtlty has the power to potentially cause me to feel.