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Robots in the Sky
Aug. 3rd, 2009 12:51 amSo... For a few seconds this morning, I felt the nonrational fear that my toilet was about to expode, possibly as the result of a volcanic eruption. That doesn't happen every day.
In retrospect, I have to assume that the knocking on my door early this morning was maintenance, probably trying to tell me that they were going to have to shut off the water briefly for whatever reason. In any event, I rolled over and went back to sleep. Whatever the cause, when I got up I had, unbeknownst to myself, air in the pipes.
Half asleep, I flushed the toilet. It immediately began to hiss and sputter loudly, sounding precisely like an old-fashioned steam radiator. My semi-conscious mind concluded that there was steam rushing into my toilet tank. The only plausible causes for this could be (1) The building was on fire, or (2) There was lava underground, heating the water pipes. My brain settled on 2 (there was no smoke), and for two or three seconds, before the adrenalin woke me up, I lived in this strange world where there might well be a volcano preparing to erupt under my apartment. The idea sounds silly, but it's silly because you examine it with your rational adult mind. For those couple of dazed, panicked seconds, I'm fairly sure that my mind was working as it did when I was a toddler, and excited. The state of consciousness had a familiar feel to it. I was thinking, and reasoning after a fashion, but not within the normal constraints of daily consciousness. I had no reason to rule out the idea of a volcano underneath the building. I had only the immediate facts to work with, and wasn't tying in larger truths about geology and physics. The feel of that way of thinking stays with me even now, slightly. I'm sorry that there was no security camera in my bathroom, because I'd love to see the look of horror that I'm certain was on my face those few seconds.
*****
“As we continue to discern God’s call,” Ms. Perry said in a statement on Sunday, “I pray that we will bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ that changes people’s lives and proclaims the profound inclusivity and hospitality of God.”
Rock on, mighty Episcopal Church!
In retrospect, I have to assume that the knocking on my door early this morning was maintenance, probably trying to tell me that they were going to have to shut off the water briefly for whatever reason. In any event, I rolled over and went back to sleep. Whatever the cause, when I got up I had, unbeknownst to myself, air in the pipes.
Half asleep, I flushed the toilet. It immediately began to hiss and sputter loudly, sounding precisely like an old-fashioned steam radiator. My semi-conscious mind concluded that there was steam rushing into my toilet tank. The only plausible causes for this could be (1) The building was on fire, or (2) There was lava underground, heating the water pipes. My brain settled on 2 (there was no smoke), and for two or three seconds, before the adrenalin woke me up, I lived in this strange world where there might well be a volcano preparing to erupt under my apartment. The idea sounds silly, but it's silly because you examine it with your rational adult mind. For those couple of dazed, panicked seconds, I'm fairly sure that my mind was working as it did when I was a toddler, and excited. The state of consciousness had a familiar feel to it. I was thinking, and reasoning after a fashion, but not within the normal constraints of daily consciousness. I had no reason to rule out the idea of a volcano underneath the building. I had only the immediate facts to work with, and wasn't tying in larger truths about geology and physics. The feel of that way of thinking stays with me even now, slightly. I'm sorry that there was no security camera in my bathroom, because I'd love to see the look of horror that I'm certain was on my face those few seconds.
*****
“As we continue to discern God’s call,” Ms. Perry said in a statement on Sunday, “I pray that we will bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ that changes people’s lives and proclaims the profound inclusivity and hospitality of God.”
Rock on, mighty Episcopal Church!
