Favorites

Lisa Wirsig
Sep 4, 2018 · 2 min read

My favorite plant is the cactus

It is resourceful, a survivor

Scooping, siphoning, and conserving silently,

Inside its barbed self-projections,

A porous barrier against uncareful things,

Its green body is soft and still,

Brilliant flowers are safe

They bud, blossom, and die — the cycle they are entitled to.


My favorite animal is the shark

Probably because sharks are Master Survivors

Uncomplicated

Efficient

Machines

As machines, they are the polar opposite of humans.

We are not machines.


However, because we are their polar opposite

Converting to a machine is simple and quick for us.

There is a switch

It takes just to flick it,

And the inverse is obtained,

Known and automatic.

By tracing the edges, holding them,

Closing the eyes, and falling in.

Light turns to dark

pulp to metal

thoughts to gears

feelings to power source

skin to solid

fluids to lubrication

heat to cold

The machine generates its own heat

In fact, it must be cooled periodically, but that is only because it is not perfect.


It can go on this way until it breaks

As a machine, it doesn’t know when or that it breaks.

It just ceases to move, to function, to fulfil the objectives that others have for it.

The elements stay around, though, after they are discarded.

Or rehashed to form new items, new machines

A byproduct of being material.


Somehow the “I” knows though, that it has broken and wants to rebuild it.

This “I” is like a ghost, and flits around searching.

But the parts may be scattered all over the place.

This is the problem of converting.

When the machine body does not fit the idea of it.

How to gain back, reassemble what was displaced.

Apparently, it begins with consciousness,

The essence of all material.

Without an idea, nothing can be moved.


The reassembling phase is amazing.

With parts scattered all over the place, the idea does not have to conform

To maintain the previous body.

Nothing will die if the idea tangles or explodes,

It can go on morphing until it’s content.

When it’s really really happy, it can draw the right parts to itself.

There’s nothing happier than an idea that can finally touch others.

Learning this is the root of understanding.

Since we have this power, why not do things right? Why not make ideas really, really happy? Why not give them the bodies they deserve?


This sounds simple, but really it depends on having the right idea.

With something so unpinnable, it’s really hard to know.

In any case, there may be many right ideas.

This shows there’s always something to be worked out.

Lisa Wirsig
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