Everything, everywhere, is made up.
I mean, there are things that for all practical purposes are real, but in terms of human existence and perception? Made up.
A lot of people have tried to get this idea across, in one way and another.
The meat ship.
The river.
The Ship of Theseus.
The sound of one hand clapping.
The White King’s dream.
The Simulation.
At the moment, I’m far less interested in the truth of this, than I am in our experience of it.
__________
When I was young, my mother was a pilot. We would fly our little single-engine plane from Anchorage to Talkeetna, and then go walk around, buy candy, etc.
I can remember – echoes, at least, of – being in that place with my parents and my brother. Anticipating landing so we could go look for the walking sticks we had stashed in the little graveyard nearby.
That is a place in the world, and it is also a place in time. And it is all a place in my mind. I can revisit it now, if I wish…hop a plane, rent a car, drive a ways. I can see it as it is now, without my parents and brother, a new memory layered on the dusty ones in my head.
And, for me, it will still be a real place that is also made up, that is real.
__________
When I was a little older, I was a voracious reader. I learned the skill of walking home while buried in the words and images and circumstances of other worlds, other people.
I remember – echoes of? – being in those places with those people, first visiting and then re-visiting those places – the attic, the forest, the long stretches of prairie – with all of their smells and fears and hopes and triumphs. Anticipating the fight with the sea-serpent that breaks off the tail of the ship but leaves the crew safe to find the next island.
I can see that place in the book’s world, that place in my own time. It, too, is a place in my mind that I can revisit, see it as I am now, as an adult with new cares and grief, a new memory layered on the younger ones in my head.
__________
So too, movies that I saw, with friends and family and lovers long gone, in towns and theatres abandoned.
So too, video games that I played…especially those I played with family and friends and children.
So too, role playing games we created together.
These are all places in time, in worlds, in our heads.
Sharing those worlds and this world (IRL, as we say online)…sharing those times in life and in our heads…comparing and reminding one another of what we each saw, or felt, or said or heard…this is the dearest, most sacred and sincere form of communion that I know.
__________
If the primary, the premier, thing we possess in life is ourselves,
And
If our self is largely made up of, well, all these made-up things and events and places – even the “real” ones –
And
If, as the wise know, we are all interconnected – indeed, all One –
Then
It is the most worthy and worthwhile, satisfying and enriching, loving and life-affirming thing ever to be places together, read books together, watch films or hear music or sing and create and share and laugh,
together.