trinity

Gravius had made up his mind. Literally. Into three distinct parts.

Part one concerned itself with the question of why he existed; part two the gratitude of existence; and finally part three, the horror at life’s excesses. 

Any input, any experience, any life to his mind clanked and rolled up there before settling on any of these parts. On the rare occasion that an input straddled two or all parts, it was orgasmic.

Now we do not quite know why he had made up his mind so, and conjectures have been thrown about in folds, each with a twist of its own, to no conclusive end. Where was our Gravius, who had left us with his head in one and returned with it in three? Who was our returned Gravius? 

Some argued it was not necessarily bad, this change. That dividing the workings of the mind just so is possible. When Gravius drank his KC, we asked, HOW IS IT?

“Part two: Gratitude of existence,” he responded. 

“Me, I would go with part one with KC: questioning my existence!” Phlex quipped.

We laughed, knowing the treacherous roads a gulp of KC could take one down, but we were still uneasy. 

Now you must understand; deep down, we had agreed with Gravius. It was part two, no doubt. And yet, on the surface, we did not agree. Which is why we were uneasy and ultimately concerned. Whether or not the mind existed in these three parts – or even the possibility that it could be so – paled to the stinging realization that it mattered to us where the truth was, be it on the surface-self or the inner-self. 

Of course some of us, led by Captain Wendi (who had gained a following by being a brilliant thinker, with the occasional stupidities of the geniuses), believed the question of where the truth lay to be an impossible question. 

“No longer,” Captain began her article in The Times of the Now, “can we imagine separate truths on separate selves!” 

“What nonsense!” Captain lamented. “It is one thing to be lost and finding your way and another to separate truth. Truth is absolute. It does not separate. What is taken from truth is truth. I will excuse your split into separate selves on account of your self-induced unmooring, but please, for the sake of the Times of the Now, let us correct ourselves. Truth is one. Truth is non-conflicting with itself. Are we clear?” 

On the question of Gravius existing in trinity, she wrote, “As to Gravius’ antics, I must admit gladness that at the very least, questions of being have unfolded themselves to him, even if it were only three as it stands. Perhaps when he next returns, if he leaves at all, he will come bearing three more modalities, and claim to have made up his mind six-ways! But let’s not put a man down for daring to think, and consequently, daring to live. Life simply is truth: the act of living. So even if we were to entertain the farce that is Gravius’ mental split, it would change not the facticity of life, the act of living, the truth of life.”

We were quick to respond. Phlex (of course, who else?) was live that evening at The Trends of Now with Ophilo Maphili. 

“Why are you infuriated,” Ophilo goaded.

“Captain Wendi, for all her worshipping of the truth, seems to have blinded herself to the most glaring truth of all: the facticity of living must include the conditions of living. So Gravius’ ‘farce’ as she calls it, does very well change the truth of life! I am not infuriated per se, Ophilo, I am pitiful.”

“Pitiful?”

“Yes, Ophilo. Pity that the argute Captain may never understand our fascination with Gravius”. 

Captain, true to her eponymous militant spirit, fired off a missive in response, ending with, “At the risk of sounding ungrateful for the heaps of pity that Phlex seems eager to offer, I have no need for it. In fact, I would advise that Phlex directs her pity to Gravius, whom I think more deserving of this potent sentiment.”

Meanwhile, we asked Mashughuli, who overflowed with odd locutions when at the bar with a KC, what he thought of the whole affair. 

“No one can make up their mind no more than they can choose their dreams.”

Gravius, Mashughuli explained, could not possibly have made up his mind, even if he wanted to, but it was possible that his mind was made up as he claimed. 

“I suppose what you are asking me,” he said, pausing to take a swig of KC, “is whether Gravius is right.”

“The right way to live can only be one’s right way to live.”

Now, it seemed to us that Mashughuli was tasking us with Gravius’ part three, and when we left to ruminate, it was with clear-headed confusion.