Sometimes it’s funny the way the world looks different when you learn a new thing or catch a strange foreign film or think at least to yourself that you’ve come up with an idea, the result of figuring out exactly why the world thinks and acts like it does, what it did differently yesterday, and what it’s likely to slowly shift into doing for real some time early tomorrow afternoon.
For example, when you hear an expression like “you can’t get there from here” and realize it’s not about physical geography or Cartesian geometry or directions read from a greasy Texaco road map you borrowed from a guy in a diner who reminded you of somebody you probably (and unfortunately) owe some money.
No, the “here” in the expression isn’t about space. It’s about time. That makes it less like an artist’s Atlas rendering of hundreds of points all leading to a fictional made-up place like the center of the universe like Camelot, Rome, Dallas-Fort Worth (where you have to change planes, whether your final destination is heaven or hell), or your favorite cultural center catering almost exclusively to your organic, all-natural, and ultimately despicable sense of good taste.
No, the map doesn’t point to a place. “Here” is right here. Right in this exact spot. There is no other it, except this It. It is right now. It isn’t and will never be anywhere or anytime or anything or anybody else.
You can’t get there from here. It’s a lie. And yet, it is not a lie.
Think of it like this: imagine you are right here. Right now. Fortunately that’s not very hard. In fact, you’re actually not capable of doing anything else. And you’ve been doing it all your life, so you know that it looks like.
That’s how the world actually works. We – and I use the term to clarify that I don’t mean just people who look like me, speak like me, act like me, like me, wanna be me or find a cave or institution or hole or some other place so dark, isolated, and empty that you can imagine that you are the seashell that sounds like the ocean to drop me in – I mean each one of us, no matter and probably in spite of how you use that word to exclude or include anything you deem worthy or appropriate or holy or special or magic or precious, animal, vegetable and/or mineral, whenever it suits you. We exist in a world where all you are really allowed to do, all you are required to do, maybe even a little compelled or driven to do, is what you can do better than anything else alive. At what you do, you are the absolute best at it.
First imagine what you think that talent or ability or natural inclination might be. Yeah, your unique thing that makes you a better you than anyone else could ever be. It’s pretty good, right? Something that’s probably even a little cool. If they didn’t each have their own unique thing, people – even relatives – would likely be a little jealous. Face it, you’re a pretty big deal when it comes to getting it done.
Better make sure that skill you’ve got isn’t failure. Although a lot of other people might tell you that’s all you’re good at. And besides, if you’re an absolute whiz at failure, that’s not failing. Or Failure.
Because you can’t there from here, no matter what you do.
Sri Ramakrishna said, “If you get drunk off a single bottle of wine, what do you care how much of other spirits the store carries?”
You are here. You can’t be anywhere else. There is no there.
18 May 2025