There\u2019s a circle of light in the middle of an otherwise completely dark room. Well, it\u2019s not exactly in the middle, but close enough that it would take a laser\u2019s precise measurement to show that it\u2019s not exactly centered in the room. So let\u2019s just say it\u2019s in the middle and move on.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a circle of light in the middle of an otherwise completely dark room. Within the center of the circle of light is a chair. The chair, like the circle itself, is not exactly laser-centered, but close enough. There\u2019s someone sitting on the chair. Their back is straight. Their feet are firmly planted on the floor. Their head is bent as if deep in thought. Or prayer. Or resignation. If someone\u2014like me\u2014was watching this person from a distance, they might assume any one of those options is true. Maybe the person sitting on the chair in the circle of light in the middle of an otherwise completely dark room has just been asked a series of questions as if interrogated. Maybe the person just heard that someone dear to them has died. Maybe the person is trying to remember the last time they saw their house key, which they may have misplaced sometime earlier. And without a house key, maybe that person doesn\u2019t have a home at all. At least that\u2019s what someone looking at this person from outside the circle of light could assume.<\/p>\n
But the truth is\u2014and there is a truth\u2014the truth is that as I write this I don\u2019t know myself who this person is. I don\u2019t know what\u2014if anything\u2014this person is thinking. I don\u2019t know why they are sitting on a chair in the not-exact-middle of an otherwise completely dark room. And I don\u2019t know who\u2014other than myself\u2014might be lurking in the darkness around the circle of light.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve come to learn that the story lies in the unknown. Well, that\u2019s not exactly right. \u201cUnknown\u201d implies that the story may eventually become known. \u201cUnknowable\u201d is more precise. I\u2019ve come to learn that the story lies in the unknowable. I\u2019ve come to learn that there is no way for certain to know\u2014even if I myself were that person sitting on the chair in the middle of an otherwise completely dark room\u2014that there is no way to know the full story of what thoughts might be running through my mind. Or why any thoughts run through my mind at all. Or how, even, I came to be seated on a chair anywhere. Or why there is only one circle of light. Or whether the darkness around me is a circle, too. Or where the light that holds me in place originates from outside of the darkness. Or whether, in the end, I\u2019m better off with the light being on at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s a circle of light in the middle of an otherwise completely dark room. Well, it\u2019s not exactly in the middle, but close enough that it would take a laser\u2019s precise measurement to show that it\u2019s not exactly centered in the room. So let\u2019s just say it\u2019s in the middle and move on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":22030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3530],"tags":[3960],"class_list":["post-21462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flash-fiction","tag-he-him","writer-kip-knott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21462"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22031,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21462\/revisions\/22031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}