The Circle and the Dot - E. C. Nemeth (best ereader for epub .TXT) 📗

THE CIRCLE IN THE DOT

Once upon a time there was a point named Dot. Dot had no idea his name was Dot. In fact Dot had no idea about anything. Dot existed but he wasn’t aware of it. He wasn’t capable of knowing, feeling or sensing.
Being a point is much like being asleep, the difference is that Dot never woke up and he didn’t dream either. So the life of a point is rather uneventful. Dot’s world, had he been aware of it, had no height no width and no depth. That doesn’t leave much room for a great deal of variety. What would there be to do in a one-dimensional world, anyway?

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Despite this dreary outlook however, one day Dot woke up.
Dot still had no idea but a sensation was nagging at him. The nagging persisted. It went on confounding his newfound awareness until he finally realized what it was. The nagging sensation was his thoughts, his unique expression of awareness.
Sufficiently satisfied with this discovery the nagging gave over to curiosity.
Dot considered the situation.
I am here. I seem to exist. I can sense my surroundings. I know where I end and my surroundings begin. I see that there is a great deal more than me in this … this place.
But why?
Why am I here? Why do I sense my surroundings and know where I end and it begins? Why do I understand all that? How do I know there is a great deal more than me in this place? What is to be done? What should I do? While we’re at it what is doing?
Dot lost himself in thought.
He thought about the little he knew and made certain deductions based on that information. For instance, Dot wondered what was ‘over there’. By looking around himself he surmised that ‘over there’ probably looked a lot like ‘over here’. Still, he had to allow that he could not be certain. Dot concluded that the chances of ‘over there’ looking like ‘over here’ grew the closer ‘over there’ was to begin with. So if ‘over there’ was far, far away, it was possible that it would not resemble ‘over here’ at all.
It wasn’t long before Dot decided to go explore his surroundings. His only concern was that he might not be able to find his way back to this spot if he left it. This spot was important to him and he was reluctant to move without assuring that he could find it again upon his return. He changed his mind and decided to stay because he could not come up with a way to mark it.
Then he contemplated the fact that the same things could be said of the ‘inside’ as well. His thoughts could easily change and bring to light novel thoughts he could not now even begin to imagine. His feelings and emotions could also add substance to his inner world in new, marvelous and unanticipated ways. The further away those thoughts were from now the better the chances were that those thoughts would be unlike anything he could anticipate at the present time.
Dot concluded that both staying and going promised new adventures. He could go and experience the outside world or he could stay and learn what his inside world had to offer.
Dot vacillated between staying and going. His curiosity urged him to leave but his sense of belonging and his feelings of comfort and security were intimately linked to this spot. He could not risk misplacing it. If he did he would never be able to return. He would be doomed to go on roaming the world forever.
Dot continued to think. The possibility of something novel being far ‘over there’ piqued his curiosity and made Dot want to begin exploring at once. The prospect of moving, however, scared Dot and froze him to the spot. Dot was not afraid for his life though; he had no concept of death. He simply didn’t want to lose his way home.
The swaying factor was that his senses seemed more substantial, more real, than did his feelings and thoughts. Dot surmised that the fact that he found his senses more valid pointed to the proper course of action. He seemed to be predisposed to explore the outside world because of the preponderance of senses he had been bestowed with. They made him more adept at exploring outwardly.
He reasoned further that even if he could not mark this spot he could eventually make that his goal – to find his way home again. And he knew that if he searched long enough he would inevitably find it. Since he could not be certain of what he might learn ‘out there’ he could not rule out the possibility that he might even find a short-cut home.
His fear of leaving mollified, Dot decided to go and explore.
While Dot had mused, his surroundings had begun to change. The change went unnoticed by the point but a more experienced observer would have recognized the gradual brightening and warming that was going on as daybreak.
Dot was suddenly made aware of the significant alteration to his world by a glint of light from some unseen source. The light flickered and swayed in great swaths of yellows and gold. ‘There’s something over there,’ thought Dot. ‘And it’s not like over here at all!’
He made as if to move but stopped. ‘How can I mark this spot?’ he queried himself again.
That’s when he noticed what else had changed. His surroundings had been dark and undifferentiated. Now, because of the light, he could see that there were many different things all about him. He had no idea what they were but most looked like large and irregular protrusions. He could see that the protrusions shared a similar grainy appearance, as if they had all been made of the same material.
Dot quickly saw the possibility of using some of those protrusions to mark his sacred spot. He placed a bunch of the protrusions, which were very hard and heavy, on top of his birthplace. Soon he had piled up quite a significant mound above the spot and it could easily be picked out from the lesser protrusions scattered about. Finally he was satisfied that he could find the mark again with no problem.
Dot moved away from the only home he had ever known with more than just a little trepidation. He sneaked several backward glances to make sure that the marker was detectable from a distance. Soon it became virtually indistinguishable from the other protrusions strewn all about and was almost lost from view.
When next Dot looked back the marker was not visible anymore.
He experienced a moment of pure panic. He turned and began to rush back. He needed to find that marker! He had to see it one more time just to be certain that he could find it upon his later return. As Dot hurried back he suddenly realized that he really had no idea where that marker was any more.
Then Dot’s panic turned to terror. ‘What if I can’t find my way back?’ he thought, ‘What if I become lost and have to spend eternity searching for home?’ By putting his fears into words Dot only managed to fuel his terror. He began rushing about wildly, this way and that. Pretty soon he was totally confused and had no idea which way home lay.
After searching around for awhile longer with no luck Dot stopped in despair. He realized that he was hopelessly lost.
“You!” thundered a voice that seemed to come from all around him.
“So, you have finally decided to go for a stroll, huh?” came the booming voice.
“Who said that?” asked Dot, looking around him in obvious perplexity.
“I have many names; Odin, Drox, the dark lord, the evil one, the beast, the serpent, Satan and Lucifer is just a random sampling. These days I like to go by the old colloquial name: Zeus.” came the thundering reply. Perhaps he somehow recognized that the tiny fellow wasn’t sure what to call him, given so many choices. In any case, he added, “ I am Zeus.”
A moment of silence intervened, then the disembodied voice asked: “Who are you?”
“I am Dot.” He stopped trying to locate the source of the voice. “Where are you?”
“What? Oh. You really don’t know do you?” boomed the voice, the last part in a chuckle.
“The immovable mountain has no knowledge of the world,” the voice went on, “Ha!” it spat out such a cacophony of sound in that last syllable that it nearly deafened the defenseless point.
A form suddenly materialized in front of Dot. At first Dot thought it was only one of the other protrusions that were scattered about everywhere but then the form came into sharper focus. It was far more symmetrical than the other protrusions. At the same time it seemed to be a lot more complex shape as well.
“How’s that?” came a pleasant enough baritone, “Easier to see me now?” the voice continued not too loudly.
Dot noticed that a small portion near the top of the form changed shape as it spoke. Two long and narrower but otherwise identical protrusions, that were attached to the main form a little below and to either side of the form’s speaking hole, waved and motioned in synchrony with the uttered words. Dot saw that the entire smaller protrusion atop the main form, that housed the speaking hole, also seemed to bob and nod in time with the words.
“Yes, thanks, I can see you now.” Dot continued to stare at the other in amazement. He was enthralled by the novelty of Zeus’ design. The being was unlike anything he had ever imagined.
“What are you?” asked Dot in blunt curiosity.
“My, my, we must develop our manners, mustn’t we?” and Zeus tisk, tisked.
After a moment Zeus responded with, “I am a god.”
“A god? … What’s that?”
“A god can do virtually anything it wants anytime, anywhere.”
Dot let that sink in a minute.
“What can’t you do?”
“Ha!” exclaimed the god, “Not as naïve as you let on, I see.”
“I just figured it would be the best place to start. From what you said I inferred that there was only a few things on that list,” explained Dot.
“You figured correctly.” Zeus looked him over. “Before I answer that tell me who you are and what you have been doing here all these many years. While you’re at it explain to me why you have remained motionless for eons?”
“I don’t understand.” The word years and eons confused Dot. He understood the concept of time in general, now that he was aware of it, but such long periods of time were not part of his personal experience.
“I only just recently … became aware. I thought for a little while then decided to go in search of new experiences and to increase my understanding of the world. I had only just begun my journey when I realized I could no longer retrace my path back to where I started. That’s when you showed up.”
“Isn’t that a shame, poor boy lost his way home,” teased the god. Meanwhile, an ancient memory flickered involuntarily through his mind. Across the haze of time uncountable he was transported back to his own beginning. Zeus remembered when he first realized he had lost his way and how desperate he had been. He even saw, for the first time, how that experience had shaped his entire existence. He suddenly felt a deep