High Hat and Tails

“All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

This morning I sensed my mind was disconnecting from my body. No big deal. It's just another archetype of the human condition like dreaming that your teeth are falling out. And by the way, they don't grow back.

I began to distrust the sensory translations my brain was making from the signals fired from my corporeal outposts. I began to doubt the tweaks of discomfort I sensed as I walked unencumbered several miles at dawn. I noticed my pale skin glistened like a tub of shortening.

Soon I speculated that if I had not frequently walked several miles in well-worn shoes without a 50-lb pack, I would probably attribute the random pain coursing through my shoulders to whatever hypothetical 50-lb pack I happened to be carrying. This is precisely how the mind deceives.

Granted my two oddly hairless legs kept me ambulatory, but on their own accord, as if they'd cut a deal behind my back with the autocrats of the involuntary. You see, I no longer trust my mind to deliver the semblance of truth.

When the ringmaster of perception, dressed in high hat and tails, motions for the audience to join him in the ring, all bets are off.

It's true that due north probably exists on some hypothetical compass in a hypothetical glass case housed in the lobby of some mythical Bureau of Standards, but how do we account for local anomalies, or for magnetic deviations?

There might be truth, but there's always interpretation. Interpretation renders truth a hypothetical ideal.

After the discomforting prospect of trying to visualize the Venn diagram between truth and interpretation, I threw up my hands. I guess no one in his right mind addresses perception.

Ringmaster Ned from WGN-TV program Bozo's Circus.