Setting: A point beyond the next [recursion / cataclysmic climate change (i.e., geological/evolutionary era) / apocalypse (i.e., a point in the next Millennium)].

THE EXCERPT

Ginnie has begun to cycle. As she moves between her assigned tanks, she starts to sync with orbital cycles. She begins to catch glimpses of the nature of the universe. She begins to synthesize information as if weaving a seamless garment, hem up. She gathers and assembles concepts into 4D diagrams and passes them to her mates in each tank, mindful of each tank's respective functions.

Her verbal skills have long begun to falter; she can no longer construct coherent images with sound. She chooses silence. Still, the visual images that she fires to her tanks are blinding. She doesn't stop to explain them; she is afraid of losing the signal before fulfilling her mission. Her images will have to explain themselves. She has taken great care in their construction; she deposits them as if they were children being turned out of her nest.

Pausing to look back, Ginnie can see the very shape of the learning curve she has been on. It took so long to reach this point. She is ashamed and wonders who is laughing at her.

And it stops.

Her own anxiety has knocked her out of cycle. She is devastated by her lack of focus. She must wait for the next pull. If she is impatient, she will miss it yet again.

On the next cycle, she reaches new heights. It is exhilarating, so she pushes on until she is overtaken by exhaustion. She is shut down again; set down still spinning. She will not catch the next pull until she has regained her balance. It will take more time than she had calculated, but there are no more alternatives.

She spends her waiting time reviewing her errors. The next phase, she falls back into the current and glides effortlessly higher with each pull. She is flying.

All it took was trust.

THE EXERCISE

1. Read that again as if you know I'm writing about a religious experience.
   
2. Now read it again as if you know I'm writing about species evolution.
   
3. Now read it as if you know I'm writing about the role of the endocannabinoid system in our health.
   
4. Now read it as if you know I'm creating a work of conceptual art.

If you actually do the exercise, you will be a part of my image of the universe. But since this is an illustration of my image of the universe, you only need to think about doing it to see my image of the universe. ∞