for Debolorah

1

Long, long ago and far, far away, there was a planet which was occupied by only two people. Think of them as Adam and Eve if you will, for they were a male and a female, just entering adulthood. The planet Olo, however, had strict rules banning anything fun. The two remote occupants secretly rebelled in their hearts, against the harsh decrees under which they lived. No music. No touching anything, ever. No self actualization. Just the rulebook, the study of which, took up much of their time and permeated every thought, dictated how they felt and what they were, (and more importantly were NOT) to do. Below the surface, there lurked something big. Something loud. Something colorful and happy. They were both aware of it but denied that it was there. Like a whale, or a pod of whales, it threatened to surface on their tiny, tiny planet, shattering the only world they had ever known, breaching and blowing crystal fragments into the atmosphere and transforming their dull gray vistas into something resplendent and unrecognizable. They had both found tiny pieces of this crystal in the dirt. They would look at them, wipe the colorless dust from them and hold them up to see the light of stars refracted through the sparkling facets. Marveling at the beauty, they would put the jewels into parcels and send them to each other from a safe and acceptable distance. The tiny planet pulsed with a vibration that spoke to them. The rulebook said that they must stand very still and count the pulses with a waving arm outstretched before them in case they were ever to have to lead a crowd in appreciating the sound. But when they were alone, traversing the dusty surface of Olo, they instinctually responded by laughing, singing and something that almost felt like dancing. This, the rulebook forbade and so they looked away ashamed. “We have everything we need right here in the rulebook,” they droned into the monotonous air. “We are blessed and happy!” their voices echoed. “Happy! Happy!” they bellowed into the emptiness. “Blessed and happy!” they cried, long, long ago and far, far away.

This came to me along with the following song lyrics:

“So take a lesson from the strangeness you feel, and know you’ll never be the same. And find it in your heart to kneel down and say ‘I gave my love, didn’t I? And I gave it big sometimes. And I gave it in my own sweet time. I’m just leaving.'” – Jane Siberry, Love Is Everything.

2

The first fragment pulled from the colorless dust of Olo was a white tooth shape. On earth, teeth were generally considered a part of a face. A detail, really, of one feature of the face. What set this tooth apart was that it had a complete face of it’s own. This leads the viewer to contemplate the ramifications of having a complete face on a single tooth. Were a person, dentist or not, to examine the mouth part of the face within the tooth, would they find there a complete set of teeth? If so, would those teeth have faces of their own? One might be caught in a never ending sequence of faces and teeth, caught like the paddler on the river Styx. A green car was also among the initial fragments… The treasures unearthed and sent discreetly… Each holding the mysteries of what lurked beneath the surface. But there the di-inhabitants lived, on the surface, heeding the decrees to never go deeper. Still, they felt the rumbling vibrations, and they knew there was something there. Something wonderful. Perhaps something awful, yet they were entranced. While they sat still, as they were taught to do, they felt the tremors that threatened everything they had ever known. They dared not divert their gaze from the rulebook. While their faces stared, oblivious, their hearts raced in anticipation.

Face, upon tooth, upon face, upon tooth, upon face, upon tooth, upon face, upon tooth, upon face… And so they dared not move. They dared not divert their gaze. We are happy… Blessed and happy! they droned in spite of themselves.


3

A planet, even a small planet, is a big place for two people to live all alone. They had been told that they were never truly alone, but that the writer of the rulebook watched them every moment, keeping an account of their every deed so that one day he could judge them. And so they learned to act correctly at times. Still, a part of them wanted to act incorrectly, disturbing the tranquility of the planet with loud voices, blue jeans, laughter and tennis shoes. The young man even considered eating a Wednesday evening meal without wearing a tie, though of course he didn’t say this out loud. The steady, rhythmic waves were continuous and unchanging, though they seemed louder when there was no other sound to compete with them. The young Ololians sometimes wondered how it might be if a syncopated beat were added. Or a touch of discord every once in a while. “We choose rather to err on the side of boredom.  We choose the bare minimum. We choose what is outdated because it has stood the test of time.”  Heads bowed to the colorless dust that choked them, they chanted “Blandness… blandness… We are happy and bland… I mean blessed.”