'my name was gus' - Maximilian and the Reinhardt
In layman’s terms, the Boltzmann Brain Theory imagines a universe where the only thing that matters is what we perceive. Are we beings flitting about in a universe of someone else’s design or are we simply “brains” floating briefly thru the void, imposing OUR universe on that emptiness and anyone who happens to cross our path?
That central idea was the spark that drove this piece for most of its development, but as it came in to sharper focus the question of “what?” or “why?” we exist and perceive became secondary to the act of perceiving itself.
We spend so much of our lives searching for answers — Why do I exist? Why would “God” allow so much suffering in a world of his own creation? Is Bigfoot real? — and rarely have the thought to simply let a moment be, let it go, and look forward to the next. And that’s where this piece landed.
At nearly twenty minutes of loops upon loops upon loops upon loops…it asks for commitment. It asks YOU, the listener, to put down whatever questions you have roiling through your mind and simply accept this brief moment as a thing that exists for you in whatever way YOUR universe perceives it.
I could tell you more about what I think it is, but beyond being irrelevant — it is yours now —it would be missing the point. But I would be thrilled to discover what it means to you. How you perceive it. How it makes you FEEL. Because even if we are all just brains floating in space, waiting for the heat-death of some actual universe, nobody ever said we have to be alone in that.
Even if we’re all made up in our minds.
P.S. Gus (the cat) is very much still alive, though I don’t think I really care what his name is anymore. And neither does he. What I and my family are sure of is that he is beloved, and that’s all that really matters.
