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December 27, 2013

The Ventriloquy of Life

I had a serendipitous encounter with the universe last week, so I did what any curious human being would do, and asked him for the truth. It was short and it was bitter sweet. It was nothing more than a moment of weakness, but in that moment, I felt the need to ask the universe for the truth, so I did. Now, considering all the hurdles it throws at us on a daily basis, I thought my request was quite reasonable, but the universe laughed, thinking I'd gone mad, which, perhaps, I had. But this isn't about that. This is about the universe and his lame attempt at answering my possibly pathetic question, a question only a few have dared to ask. This is about what the universe said, or didn't, when I demanded to know the truth.

He hesitated at first, then something in the air around us changed, and he told me all about it. He told me that there is no truth, at least not in the strictest sense of the word. He told me that there is no truth, only perfectly moulded lies. And I believed him, mostly because I didn't know any better. I never do. He told me that the truth is like a Nintendo game with a clear beginning but no foreseeable end. It is complex and imaginary, an illusion if you will, like the magic tricks Houdini performed in the late 1800s. And like Harry's tricks, the truth is only temporary, so it is said to fluctuate from one show to another. The truth is, in fact, a circus show, and we are merely random wanderers who just happened to be passing through. We are the circus freaks. We are the dummy puppets manipulated by an introverted, invisible ventriloquist.

"I call it the ventriloquy of life", the universe said, smirking. And in his smirk I noticed something I failed to see before. And it was then that I realised that the universe is as clueless about the truth as the rest of us. He knows that it exists, and that it's there, but he knows better than to try and understand it. Because the truth is messy, and messy is complicated, and no one likes complicated, not even the universe himself. So then I made a promise to myself, a promise I knew I would break sooner or later. I promised to never ask the universe for the truth again.

Until today. Today I had another moment of weakness.