More Psychedelia

I think they're putting something in the water here at Nimiyo Elementary. Everything's gone all trippy again. The wall across from my desk is comprised entirely of windows, idced up into small panes by sloppily painted wooden slats. Not every piece of glass is perfectly flat (where did they buy this cheap crap?). I like the way the world behind the warped glass ripples as I move my head left and right. I must look like a fool sitting in the teachers' lounge swaying back and forth to an imaginary beat. I'm not worried. It's worth it to watch the stone wall outside flap like a sheet hung out to dry. I unfocus my eyes and let the light from outside flood my visual field. The dark slats between the panes of glass become cracks in a world of light as figure and ground invert. It's been too long since I've looked at Escher and even longer since I've read GEB. Still, I haven't lost what they shared with me; if anything I've been feeling it more lately, the magical sensation that the whole universe is alive with Pattern and meaning. I feel filled with the beginner's mind, not childish but childlike.

How perfect that this composition was just interrupted by an invitation to join the children playing house. This was no boorish acquaintance knocking on Colleridge's door with some mundane business. No, I was taken instead to a fantastic little world the children had created for themselves. Under the vine-covered trellises they had made a perfect Japanese home, complete with kotatsu. Most of the chilren sat around this, really just an old tire with a blanket and pillow thrown over it, while Saori and Ryuichi climbed on the branches above them. I wanted to serve them green tea, to sit down with them in the speckled light that filtered throught the vines, but the chime rang and recess ended. Cooleridge's boor had arrived at last, an unwelcome summons to the adult world. Fortunately, I didn't have to join the children in their studies. I was free to return to my desk where endless worlds awaited on blank pieces of paper and behind wavy panes of glass.