Sunday, December 13, 2020 - Thought Experiments.

Try imagining a city, any place, any place, or any city, without a deadly virus. See if you can feel the pulse of the city. See if it has life, examine its meaning. It has meaning. Now try the same thing -––– the same imaginative output –––– with a city, any place, or any city, that does have a deadly virus ––– one that’s spreading and comes in waves and in surges, first, second, and third and who knows how many more. See if it has life, examine its meaning. It has meaning.

Compare the first imaginative space to the second. What’s different about the two and what do the two have in common? Now take the deadly virus completely out of the frame. It’s not that it’s not in the second imaginative space (the second city), but that it never existed at all –––– that it was never a concept or an idea that could actually be conceived of by the mind and then articulated through language.

This is called the the third imaginative space, the third thought experiment –––– not the absence of the deadly virus but the the absence of its absence; a presence that never was. Now take New York City. Take Eighth Avenue or Third Avenue if you prefer. The east side or the west side. Or the Upper West Side or the Upper East Side. Or Lower Manhattan or Upper Manhattan. Or Midtown Manhattan. Or Brooklyn.

Take any one of the five boroughs and pick any one of the neighborhoods within the five boroughs and superimpose the three aforementioned imaginative spaces on any one of the street corners of the neighborhood of choice. Is it night or is it day? Is there sunshine or is there rain? Is it windy? And what day of the week is it? A weekend or a weekday? Is it a holiday and if so, which holiday?

Pinpoint the expression on the face of the woman exiting the subway station at the northwest corner of the intersection you’ve chosen. She’s wearing a forest green rain jacket and grey denims and black flats and she’s in a hurry –– walking quickly. She’s in a rush and in a matter of moments she’ll be ordering a double espresso cappuccino from a fancy bodega around the corner.

If you were wondering about the day of the week understand that it’s Thursday. And if you’re wondering why she’s in a hurry and whether there’s a virus spreading or not understand that she thinks she’s running late but she’s actually quite early –––– the person she’s going to meet has been delayed, for a while. He’ll be late. She’ll be early. She doesn’t know this. You do.

There’s a cadence and a rhythm to her thoughts as she’s waiting for her cappuccino. She’s going over her lines and thinking through her thoughts. Putting words to her decisions; rationalizing her rationalizations. Applying logic to logic.

The man she’s meeting doesn’t want to be late but it’s ten minutes until he’s supposed to be there and the train is still stalled in the station and as he looks down at his watch again he understands in that moment that without question he will, indeed, be late. Already he’s actual late. He won’t be there on time.

Superimpose any one of the imaginative realities upon the scenario described herein; and watch as the tide washes over and between and throughout each of them. Look, watch –––– notice how the city can hold each of these realities, equally. See how the city can hold them all the same. The city can hold them. They’re held by the city. The city is holding them.