Least you quick jump critical --  what damage was wrought? --
who was hurt by this pretense come actual?  --
and before you embarrassingly stumble over misplaced scorn,
you might be interested to know that the people there flourished,
going from one breathtaking achievement to another,
incomparably outshining all other forms of life in that galaxy.
 

Outside looking in, one might believe that everyone there had by now totally forgotten that their notion of being on a train going from an initial location to another destination was a self initiated act of pretend,
but that would be an understandable error:
everyone there is still fully aware of being on a carousel,
but the pretense has gained them so much,
and is now so solidly a part of the planet’s overall culture
that it seems to the sane entirely foolish to ever mention it;
in fact the affair has reached a stage wherein the creatures are now
physiologically unable to directly speak of the matter,
(though they may do so metaphorically and strictly in code).
 
 

So here is how the situation presently stands:
everyone there lives on a carousel  --  going round and round,
while pretending they are on a train going some where;
they all are aware that they are simply pretending,
but now no one is capable of physically saying so,
plus the pretense has proven so profitable that no one sees any need to note it,
and thus they feel no loss in not being able to do so   --  and an even finer point:
not only are they physically unable to say anything about the pretense to one another,
neither can each person even mention it to himself  --   in his thoughts --
which again, it must be noted  --  does no demonstrative harm,
but it is a plain and irrefutable fact, (to a non critical outside observer).
 

That gives a basic overview of life on that world,
but there is one minor matter which you might find of passing interest:
scattered scantly amongst the population keeps appearing
a few beings who are able to articulate the planet wide act of pretend;
they do not in any actual sense, know more than other people,
(since everyone there remains aware that they play-act),
they alone are merely capable of saying that it is so  --
and before you jump to concussions again and surmise what a boon this would be
for those few  --    the fact is that their ability to verbally make note of the all encompassing pretense in which everyone performs --
is basically meaningless.
The pretense is hurting no one,
and indeed seems in large part responsible for their singular success,
thus no one is interested in hearing it pointed out     --     plus,
everyone already knows about it anyway   --   so,
what purpose is to be served by it being so?!
 

But commonly do these mutants insist on pointing it out and talking about it,
which the majority usually just ignore, or if pushed, ridicule;
and those of the exceptional few who do speak up about the pretense
unwittingly set up a situation whereby they are irresistibly sucked into
their own specialized game of pretend;
if they become entangled with trying to get the majority to admit that
their whole life is based on a pretense,
they themselves become a helpless pawn in a whole new game of pretend,
one wherein the other players, (the rest of their fellow creatures),
suffer no ill, or are even affected,
while their own personal world of an original, unique ability,
quickly crumbles into bitter dust, (unbeknownst to them even as it occurs).
 

They are never able to get the planet’s population to admit to the pretense,
and those who persist in trying are crippled by their futile efforts,
in the sense that they lose the initial clarity of their talent
via their vain embattlement with those who lack it,
and are never able to pursue its potential to its profitable conclusion.
 
 

For those of you who may still be managing to miss it:
you have not yet stepped on the real track to Knowing What The Deal Is,
(“Waking up from man’s state of sleep” as ‘tis most commonly called),
until you suddenly realize  --  on your own  --
that you in no way know what, “Being asleep or being awake” actually is  --
which simultaneously makes you aware that no one can know  --
which, (a second after that) --  teaches you something no one can talk about.
 
 
 

The Question is:
Are grand  churches erected to impress the parishioners, or the priests?
   On whom does a man’s lay-about mind lay most heavy?
 
 
 

Public laws can affect men’s behavior  --   but not their feelings:
same as an individual’s decision to change himself.
Men who believe that human problems can be solved by the passing of laws,
and promises of reform
will be forever problem bound, fixed and tied to problems.
 
 
 
 
 

Ponders one chap: “On what faint planet be there men who
                          wax philosophical o’er the nature of life who
                                  have not their dicks caught in wringers?” --

and one guy proposes: “So commonly do men bemoan this life that it suggests this could actually be a state of death subsequent to some prior forgotten life.”
 

   “Hey, how can you tell a man is intellectual?”
      “He’s whining?!”
   “Ah – you peeked.”
 
 

An ordinary life is like being here twice;
a clear headed one is like not being here at all  --

     “I say  --  I would like to know who wrote this particular item
       so that I may express to them my most hearty disagreement.”
 
 
 
 

When asked why he never responded to attacks, a mystic replied:

Someone has said: “Things which hurt, instruct” --  which should be true,
but with the ordinary mind: Things which hurt  --  just hurt.
 
 
 
 

Those who are wrong accidentally  --   are discovered;
those purposefully so  --   go unseen.
 
 

  “But tell me then precisely --  exactly what is it that you favor?”
         “Yes --  that too.”
                     “Hey, don’t put the shuck on me Hubert  --
                      not lessen you got a ring to go along with it.”
 
 
 
 

And a son asked a father:
“Why is it called a semi colon?”
  “’Cause when you eat food, just like taking in ideas  --  the job is only half done.”
 
 
 

......”With all due respect, Pa pa, am I really expected to get-that?!”
                                  “Respect has nothing to do with it:
                                    apples and pears cannot be insulted,
                                    and neither can ideas that mean anything.”
 “But how can you be certain that an idea does actually mean something worthwhile?”
                                  “It aids in the elimination of all other normally digested ideas.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                         sing not of distinctions;
                                         the awakened day is whole and one  --
 

                                         suspect the racketed man,
                                         in the clearly golfer’s land  –
 
 

--  and one father advised a son:
                                       “Think like a poet and talk like a trucker;
                                         to unneeded, stand out
                                         is to get left out  --
                                         when The BigTrain finally makes its run near you.”
 
 

                                                                                                    ("Ah -- you peaked!"