On Relativity


     My friend, the scientist and late
20th century rationalist, scoffs at the idea
of relative reality.

     "There is one concrete reality," he says,
"It's just a matter of finding out which 
explanation is correct.

                         Two contradictions
can't co-exist.  Either statement A is true, 
or it's false.  If statement A is true,

                                        not-A
must be false.  So, the current theory 
of reality is either true or false, and as 

                                           far 
as I can tell it seems to work fine."  Reality
is more than boolean, greater than functionality.

     Consider: even your desires are not simple,
that your mind does not know a simple truth.  Your
ex-lover, as an instance, is leaving your native

America to study abroad in various European
countries.  The last night that you spend in
each other's company, you feel a desire to

                                           both
kiss her and not kiss her.  How is this a
contradiction?  ("You've outlined the case

in the wrong way," my friend says.  "You want
to kiss her, but can't bring yourself to do it.")
The case is not so simple.  

                            You want to kiss her
because of the way her hands reach into the
quiet alcoves in your home, the way her

                                        warm breath
once lulled you to sleep and woke you in its absence, 
the way her smile swallows

                           leagues of sorrow yet 
still advertises her inner festival.  Conversely,
you want to not kiss her because you feel

                                          devastated
by the metal blades of her combine, you regret how
she stings like the harried scorpion, you dislike

her voice combing with its fine teeth.  "How can you
want to kiss her and not kiss her?"  It is as simple
as desire, as simple 

                     as knowing the nature of reality.



     -- jennifer crystal chien