Cursed memories, ghosts.
I was at a bar, of course, in front of work friends. I explained the durability of atoms and the impermanence of life. I tried to explain my semi-liquid theories on god: dealing with gravity as the only known force that is always attractive, operating over all known distances...
Etc.
Electromagnetism is where the phenomenon of people are. It is the thing they can understand. It is graspable, both literally and figuratively. Alternately, I explained the strong nuclear principle as the binding force of the universe, also very god-like, as far as forces go. It is god in the little details.
Well... I guess they all are when you think about them... forces.
Which I very sufficiently had not.
The weak nuclear principle got mentioned in passing also.
By the time I hit electro-magnetism my monologue had devolved into the very opposite of gravity, opposing at all known distances, especially close ones.
There weren't even any girls there. I still found a way of being a confused boor.
It was as natural as supernovae and sand.
Non-contact particle forces. It is my generation's simplification, it seems.
Everybody wants to talk about string theory, and elegance. It has become the byword for the new gods, untouchable and with immense implications.
Sure, why not?
When will I learn? Ever?
I do so much better with nothing, everyone understands the language of nothing, the modern poetry of physical resistance, the empty emptiness, it is the gift of the literate 20 centuries, or it was,
I tremble for what used to be called the past,,,
.
