"Poopsie," I said, "it's another morning. Can you believe it? Consider the odds, I mean. Wouldn't you think that any day now we should begin without a morning. Otherwise, it's just one damn thing after another. Whatever are we to do?"
"Speaking for me," she said, "I'm on my way into the office and you, if you will follow my suggestion, will complete some of the things on that list I gave you."
"Forget lists," I said, "this is no time to be thinking of lists. Hell's foundations are shaking."
She gave me a look, not thoroughly compassionate but not totally lacking either. Then she said, "What are you talking about?"
"Ms. Wonder," I said, with some topspin, "have you not been paying attention? The world has jumped the rails. We're off the path. Last week, if it could go wrong, it did and now the same is happening this week. Consider Uma for example. She disappears."
"She has found a new hiding place that we don't know about," she said with a sanguine smile, "but she hasn't disappeared into thin air."
"I beg your pardon," I said. "Thin air is exactly what she has disappeared into. She takes a few steps toward the hallway each morning and then poof--gone."
"Not poof--gone," she said.
"Yes, poof--gone," I said.
We stood there for a moment or two, giving each other the eye and sizing each other up. You know how it is when two strong personalities are in close juxtaposition, if that's the word. The atmosphere can somethings get thick.
"Maybe you should try meditating, like Eddy here," she said reaching to stroke the back of the cat who sat on the toilet seat staring into the trash-can, as he does every morning.
"I meditate!" I said. "I teach others to meditate too. That's what I do. I immerse myself in meditation."
"Yes, but Eddy meditates first thing every morning right after breakfast."
"He's just lethargic from eating so much food," I said.
"He contemplates the void," she said still stroking the back of that cat.
"Are you implying that the trash-can and the void are the same?" I asked.
"Think about it," she said. "Everything that goes into the trash-can is considered to be worthless--it amounts to nothing. No matter how much you put in, the contents are always worthless. So the trash-can in that respect represents nothing. Then when you consider that everything is eventually used up or loses it's value and is thrown away, you realize that everything ends up in the trash. Everything becomes nothing. The trash-can, like the void, represents everything and nothing."
I was non-plussed. Wouldn't you have been in the same situation? I mused on this observation for a long moment. This Poopsie Wonder, as I've always said, and as you have certainly found by reading these missives, this Ms. Wonder is amazing. She knows all.
"Do you suppose that Eddy actually contemplates the void intentionally?" I said.
"Probably not," she said, "but do we actually have to be aware that we are meditating?"
"Actually, the essence of meditation of to be aware of nothing but existence," I said.
"Well, there you go then," she said.
"Truth!" I said. And I immediately trained the focus of my attention on trash-cans. I still practice the contemplation of trash cans and their contents. It's not too much different from my former preoccupation of goals and bucket-lists and other such nonsense.