Animals, Nature, Contracts – a glossary of forgotten words, ideas, and certainties.
We wake up in the morning and we wonder
Why everything's the same as it was
We can't understand, no, we can't understand
How life goes on the way it does.
YEAR: 2020
RUNTIME: 11:40
VOICE: Sharday Mosurinjohn
PERFORMANCE: Neven Lochhead, from Three Events
MUSIC: “The End of the World,” written by Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee; piano interpretation by John Burge
Script
Part 1: Perilous Tasks (with commentaries & glossary)
There is no greater task that we now face.
We face no greater task than that which now confronts us.
No task which now confronts us bears the same grave risk.
No menace which now challenges us can demand a greater task.
We are challenged with no more grave undertaking than what which we now confront.
The tasks that we are now challenged to bear bear no greater peril than those which we now
confront.
Our resolve is sacrificed when challenged with a menace which risks confronting the resolve
seeking to undermine our perils.
The challenges that we are now tasked to undertake bear no greater risk than those with which
we are confronted to demand, and without which our challenges do not bear the perils that we
confront.
We demand to confront those tasks which challenge the perils with which we are now
confronted, and for which no sacrifice is too great.
No sacrifice is too great when confronting the perils which now challenge our capacity to
undertake risks which confront us with perilous tasks.
Perilous tasks require our sacrifice when confronted with the challenges that risk undermining
the confrontations which demands our resolve.
Our resolve is sacrificed when challenged with a menace which risks confronting the resolve
seeking to undermine our perils.
The menace which seeks to undermine our determination to resolve our risks demands our
sacrifices insofar as those sacrifices with which we confront our challenges risks undermining
our resolve.
Trees:
tall plants so completely embodied in a particular theory that every time you see one, you
involuntarily assert that theory.
String:
emergencies bring good fortune – as when a boat crosses a dangerous stream, and everyone
raises their voice as one, summoning the powers required to ensure the safety of all.
tin can:
- the view that everything which lies beyond the horizon of human understanding never really deserved our attention anyway.
- a common household device that discriminating individuals and organizations employ in order to ensure that they always get whatever they want.
Fire:
- do not look for causes, only regularities.
- causes are no one’s concern; do not look for them.
- obviously, only a complete hysteric or self-flagellating moralist would see an ethical problem
here.
Beauty & Youth:
a late 19thC movement committed to challenging those who sneer at the natural sincerity and
goodness of human motives.
“my life”:
a cluster of comforting but unjustified beliefs nonetheless still capable of providing guidance for
actions requiring a high degree of social and moral stability.
Wind:
- extreme caution is necessary.
- probabilities are in flux.
- the time is not right for action.
Work:
one of the most complex words in our language. every era seeks to erase from memory what it
meant in the previous era. anonymous forces of history are drawn to a moment when all images
of work will be eliminated.
Rocks, Boulders:
- the most solid things we have to remind us that things happen.
- solid things which remind us not that things must happen, just that things do happen.
Prudence:
the tendency to panic, while still believing that you can maintain control. it’s like
suddenly realizing that you’re driving too fast, so you hit the brakes, which causes an accident.
Will:
- all experiences which employ a spiral structure, and which fall within statistical norms.
- part of an evolving vocabulary for all initiatives to standardize the things we routinely talk
about, but don’t understand.
Part 2: The Selfish Zebra (with clarifications & brief remarks)
We are nomads and explorers.
“We go to and fro in the Earth and walk up and down in it.”
We are disciplined, and engaged in meaningful research projects.
We live in the world of the double slit experiment.
We know how to convert desire into pleasure.
We are the subject of dreams.
We agree that we will, at all times, yes, faithfully, and to the best of our ability, experience, and
talents, perform all of the duties that may be required of us, pursuant to the express and implicit
terms stipulated below, to the reasonable satisfaction of all concerned. We shall not, during the
period specified below, be empowered or have authorization, directly or indirectly, in any
manner, as partner, officer, counselor, director, advisor, consultant, or, in any other capacity, or
in any other enterprise similar to the proprietor’s initiatives or any other obligation, either related
or unrelated to any and all assigned responsibilities.
We are beautiful, and make condescending high and low frequency noises.
You are our enemy, and we will kill you if we can.
We keep both our houses and neighbourhoods clean and free of criticism.
We adhere, as best we can, to all relevant labour standards.
We are greedy, and as grasping as any naked impulse.
And so we congregate around trees, whose trunk and branches are “too gnarly to apply a
measuring stick.”
“Why does the sea rush to shore?”
“Why does the sea rush to shore?”
“Why do the birds go on singing?”
We will kill you if we can, including:
objects
things
belongings
items
assets
stock
materials
articles
collections
possessions
supplies
particles
spaces
containers
modes
bonuses
quantities
models
forms
relations
affiliations
affairs
constancies
correspondences
samples
resemblances
agreements
developments
attachments
accessories
surpluses
particulars
installments
parts
indexes
setups
layouts
lineups
sequences,
frequencies
and all personal effects
comprised of…
equipment
appliances
syntax
houses
vocabulary
boats
symbols
and all your clothing
We wake up in the morning and we wonder
Why everything’s the same as it was
We can’t understand, no, we can’t understand
How life goes on the way it does.
“ ’Cause you don’t love me anymore.”
We release and discharge all claims, complaints, charges, disputes, and demands against the
organization and its staff, agents, partners, associates, shareholders, officers, directors,
administrators, and affiliated companies, except for claims, complaints, charges, disputes, or
demands that could arise from a breach of this termination contract, such as claims for back
pay, advance pay, reimbursements, compensations, damages, indemnities, levies, tariffs, and
fees – including attorneys’ fees – that could arise from any relevant jurisdictional employment
laws, transactional legal disputes, or from any supplemental or inhibitory conduct or adverse
actions.
We have had the opportunity to consult with an attorney and are fully aware of our legal rights
and privileges, and knowingly and voluntarily waive those rights.