The Mists of Possibility

The scintillating nature of possibilities is a phenomenon that you are unable to comprehend until you find yourself in the midst of a situation where it rebounds upon itself, creating a heightened sense of its own importance. Causes, effects, options, differences, all shimmer before the eye of the mind in a mind numbing circle of slight variations all commendable in their own rights and equally uncertain and with tenuous results all clearly visible to the minds eye. To this bewitching dilemma, if time sufficiently compressed and dilated can be attached, the vision swims exceedingly fast while the mill of the mind grinds exceedingly fine, creating a problematic swirling mist.

The mind computes these multiplying options endlessly, visions fleetingly flashing across the mindÂ’s eye, slight changes to simple situations with significant consequences,consequencess we probably have only guessed at, most of our guesses probably wrong. Somehow we remain convinced of the false belief that enough thought, enough rationality, enough analysis will enable it to give a clear answer to a question that is beyond the intrinsic ability of the mind to solve, dependant on variables so far beyond its control that restriction is not a possibility and all results are those of rough and ready calculations done on the back of a tissue, with rough approximations and greater or lesser error margins that are themselves unknowable.

The result hits hard and with a cold kernel of truth; its core assertion that this endless shimmying visage is not sustainable, that eventually there will come a moment when all the probabilities must be removed and certainty acquired by a moment of decisive violence. This endless succession of alternatives is not sustainable, and indeed life would not be livable if we were to dwell in the realm of past "‘what ifs". At the core we understand that the past must be shrouded over, the realms of probability forgotten by the weakness of human memory. The only veils we draw our attention to is that of future choices, all the while knowing that they too are temporary. The fog must be dispersed, for that is the nature of fog.