My fellow strangers, the human mind (i.e. my mind) appears to be trapped in infinite space. Alas, I doubt that any revolting words will help us any more than they will hinder. Who among us can possibly fathom “infinite space,” for example, and yet here I am prating on about it as if it were a pint of beer. I apologize.

“Nothing,” “silence,” and perhaps, most notably, “wordless” are all classic demonstrators of the fact that words are not the same as that which they attempt to describe. As my buddy Eckhart once tentatively put it, “they are merely pointers.” (I think he was referring to words, anyway.) Allow me to paraphrase. Even the most concrete of concepts do not represent anything near “firm data.” Some of you will have no doubt noted that acceptance of this “fact” precludes us from describing anything else factually, leaving us to float around in our own semantic soup like gherkins in an unfathomably large jar of mixed metaphors. What a pickle of consciousness we find ourselves in. Hello, glad you could make it.

I know, I know, I’m chasing my own tale . Knowledge is the recourse of the mind. It gives us something to do, I guess. (I can only guess.) It’s definitely a lot easier to feel a sense of achievement in this regard if you treat words as if they were “real.” Suddenly these ridiculous tokens are transformed into the very bricks and mortar of logic, reason and reality! Am I on the money or what?

I’m glad you’re following me. It feels “unlonely” doesn’t it? Faced with unfathomable and unexplainable infinity, it’s no wonder that so many of us are apt to ask others for help, whether we mean to or not. Our knowledge hungry minds trade in vacuous derivatives; secondhand concepts and borrowed notions that are backed up by … nothing. I like to call it McReality. You might like to call it that too. You get the idea.

All that said, I feel privileged and honored that this humble mag has a chance to contribute a little sauce to your meme-burger. We certainly do our best to make it a good deal spicier than the TV. Might I be so bold as to suggest you take that Godforsaken contraption to the recycling depot? You’ll feel so much better!

Our history as a species can be summed up as a ‘battle of ideas.’ Influence is one mind taking a shortcut through another. We evaluate what others say, just as you may be doing right now, with “That’s real”, “That’s BS”, “That’s a weird intro for a gardening magazine.”

Thanks for indulging me and for tuning in for our Summer Special. We’ve crammed it full. Please let us know what you think it’s full of. But be nice.

Love you long time,
Everest
PS – Crap! I forgot to plug our amazing show in LA! October 2nd. GROW 2010!