29th January, 9:51 am Jan 29th

Listen to me: the world is very simple, not at all confusing. We learn as we grow up to overlay sheets of confusion on the simple, stark mattress of reality, and become smothered by the pillow of chaos as we're poked in the back by the loose spring of over-encumbered metaphors.

Consider the futon: simple, practical and dual-purposed. Now imagine reality is that futon. The hinge where the futon folds to become a sofa is the equivalent of your mind: only when the mind bends is the second nature of the futon revealed. A brittle mind will snap, and plunge your mattress onto the floor in a shower of wood shards, possibly squashing your cat.

So, in conclusion: the futon = reality, the hinge = your mind, the wooden vertical slats are society's moral structure, horizontal slats are its ethical structure. Together, the vertical/moral, horizontal/ethical form the lattice of interaction and behaviour that supports the mattress that is society. While society can afford to lose any one slat, vertical or horizontal, perhaps even a couple of them, you wouldn't want to sleep on a bed that is missing too many. Why? It might affect your 'posture', which in this metaphor is the equivalent of the way you 'stand'.

The more slats you lose, the more you end up looking like a pretzel. Eventually, the structural integrity of the futon is compromised, and collapses faster than a Ponzi scheme-based economy.

Go read more iamcal.com quotes, or check out other things said by David Pacheco

The GBLogs list now has 418 sites! As number 26 i have to say "i can remember when it used to be good".

Rumors of my legodeath have been greatly exagerated.

Check out the googlewhack scoreboard [via b3ta]

Kittens!

This was posted on Tuesday 29th January, 2002 at 9:51 am Pacific.

Read more posts from January 2002.

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