March 32, 2012

First thing.... I've always thought it'd be groovy for the extra day for a leap year to be in March instead of February. There are a few reasons -- firstly, because February is already unique in being the shortest month, and adding a day to it simply makes it slightly less so, closer to being a normal month (just one short of the thirty days which a bunch of months are already at). But to make one month of the year a 32 day month, divisible into four even stretches of eight, now that would be something else. And, local geographic anomalies aside the borderline between March and April usually heralds a beautiful Spring month (a beautiful Autumn month down under). And, lastly, since March 32 would fall one day before April 1, amusing confusion would reign o'er those who'd forgotten the extra day; the holiday mentality of April 1 would be pushed backwards to cover the preceding day, and it would simply be twice the laughs.

Second thing.... I had a most interesting experience today. Went on some errands with a friend. One stop my friend made was to go to confession (as in, in a booth, in a church, with a priest). Thing is, my friend is a very lapsed Catholic, and indeed is fairly committedly nonreligious. So why go to confession? Her explanation was that it's free and therapeutic. Turns out it feels good to have a complete stranger listen to you recount the things you've done which you feel guilty about, and to then be told you're eligible to be absolved of them -- even if you don't especially believe in the particular means of absolution offered. I asked another priest about this going on, and he acknowledged that, yes, the church was aware that some proportion of confessions are done by non-Catholics (or non-believing "Catholics"), whether on a lark, or to see what it's like, or for the aforementioned feel-good goal. But, he continued, the church is fine with this, because whatever reason people come in might bring them "back to the Church."

In other news....

My Iron-noder auditing journey "March"-es on:

Tem42 -- on page 22 out of 36 (I've gone through four more pages-- but Tem added a page-- damn, son!!)
The Custodian -- on page 21 out of 39.

I have in some points passed joked that this was a slog; in truth, not so, for it is very much a delight to tour the many thoughts and bits of knowledge on display in these nodes.

Yesterday, I bicycled eighty miles. This is a new milestone for me, my previous one being around 60 miles, or a metric century. There was certainly a wall between going 60 miles and 80 miles. People familiar with endurance sports will be familiar with the concept of a wall. 40, 50 and 60 miles might see me zooming along happily on my bicycle, but at 70 or 80, my body and my mind might become leaden.

And those familiar with physical stress, or mental stress, might be familiar with the euphoria and odd thought patterns that accompany it. Somewhere on the way back, my mind entered a strange loop. Recently, I read 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, in which he described a race known as The Little People, odd and mysterious beings who are never fully described. One of the reasons could be that according to Murakami, they can't be remembered...when you look away from them, details of their appearance vanish. Strangely enough, 1Q84 is not the only place I have heard of manipulative creatures that can't be remembered, although the other instance escapes me.

It occurred to me, bicycling along, feeling the cold wind blow against me, that there may be such a thing as an anti-Tinkerbell effect. It is an article of faith for some that certain things can only be understood after they are believed in. But what, thought I, if some things are only understood when they are not believed in? What if there are things that are blocked from our conscious understanding, that if they were revealed to us as facts, we would deny or forget, but that we can understand and perhaps act on if we understand it to be a fiction, or a joke?

In a mindstate of fatigue and caffeine intoxication, the idea seemed perfectly reasonable, and indeed, there is no way to disprove such a theory, which is why it makes such a nice strange loop. And if disbelief is a prerequisite to understanding these forces that control our life, then happily enough, everyone reading this takes it to be the April Fool's joke of a well known jester.