Friday, April 22, 2005

Of Mirrored Labyrinths

While I was at the bookstore the other day I came upon an book about labyrinths (the book being of the coffee-table variety, with stylish formatting and lots of pictures). Leafing through it, I found my curiosity piqued by the universality of what is called the "Classical Labyrinth," a particularly patterned seven-track unicursal maze, sometimes called a "Cretan Labyrinth." This particular pictograph can be found the world over, from the Mediterranean to Polynesia, from the temples of India to the pueblos of New Mexico. It seems no one really has any idea how that particular symbol came to be spread so widely across seemingly insurmountable geographic and cultural barriers.

As I was reading this, I found myself eavesdropping on the conversation of two people behind me. They were both teachers, probably in their late twenties, but what really drew my attention was that their conversation seemed like a synopsis of all my conversations with Jenny Sullivan over the past few weeks. Their words, their very mannerisms, were deja vu. I evenually had to leave, unnerved at having encountered a mirror of my recent personal history.

Afterwards I connected the two events. I had discovered a double of my own relational labyrinth sprung up in another part of the world, without any visible relation. And I would like to think this is because, like the Classical Labyrinth, my private relational labyrinth is born of something universal, something essentially human. I'm not trying to figure out the future; it's just comforting to know that I share my troubles with other people, even if only a few.

posted by Jeremy at 11:23 PM
2 marginalia

Monday, April 18, 2005

Of the Absoludicrous

I derive an unwarranted amount of pleasure from doing absurd things in the hope that someone will notice, and that my actions will have made their day a little more surreal. Today at Barnes & Noble I purchased The Guide For the Perplexed by Rabbi Moses Maimonides (the foremost Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages and court physician to Saladin) along with REAL Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja Book by the presumably pseudonymous Robert Hamburger. I hope the cashier was appreciative.

posted by Jeremy at 11:32 PM
1 marginalia