There was a point to all of this, a point that has long since escaped me. I could pretend, I suppose, that I know what it’s all about, that I am savvy to the meaning, the subtext, the nuance of that which is… this thing. As you can see, I now lack the vocabulary to describe such things and am reduced to substitution, lame substitution, and I doubt that I can even get my point across.
But, in all seriousness, that is the point. There is not point, not even to the most important of things, as much as we would like to pretend that there is. Everything that has meaning to us will, eventually, become meaningless. Case in point: the 5-1/4 inch floppy disk. Do you have one of those? Do you even know what it is? Are you aware that, at one point in time, they came in “single-sided” and “double-sided” versions, even though both were identical? And that the double-sided versions cost more than their single-sided counterparts?
I doubt very much that you know this, if only because I can safely assume that you are younger than me. Statistics prove this, so even if — and this is highly unlikely, given the numbers — you happen to be older than me, you can’t prove it if we go solely by the statistics tables.
Then again, I can prove almost anything with numbers. If I choose. And I could choose, having majored long ago in mathematics, but this would more than likely constitute abuse of my powers, and I have sworn never to abuse my powers. In fact, I have sworn to keep my powers secret, so I am guilty, now, of having violated this oath. Slightly. But it was for a good cause, so I suppose that I might be forgiven. This time. In the first place.
Which, if I am not mistaken, is the title of this piece.
There is a reason for that. Some things precede others, some things follow, but this is the first. This is the thing which all others must follow. And as the first, it sets the tone, it establishes the style — which, by the way, I intend to break again and again — for the body of work. Except that it doesn’t, as I just pointed out, which really makes this something of a meaningless paragraph. But it has meaning, at least in the sense that I intend for each post to contain a minimum of five hundred words, which is some ninety words more that we have at present. Or eighty. It’s hard to tell, since the word counting plugin has decided to stop. It’s really more of a hiccup than anything else, and it does work in fits and starts.
As do I. This is one of those fits — or starts — that results in something. Anything. I will probably examine this in greater detail at some point in the future, but not right now. This moment, this little slice of time, will bear witness to nothing greater or more meaningful than this. And for that you have either my apologies or my demand for something akin to a cash payment.
