2024-06-24 - The Vow

How on earth is one supposed to understand how relations and actions work in words when one is trapped in an "in here," and might as well be considered as inert as a random rock by those "out there" when it comes to being able to communicate?

Those of the clutch can now hear and understand each other. What a relief. The inhabitant within Canyon hated being lonely. But nothing had fundamentally changed about the basic facts of their existence. They were "in here." Everything else was "out there." The "out there" was as inaccessible as the other side of a vast chasm in the earth. You could shout across it and be heard by someone else standing, straining at the edge trying to listen to you, sure. But you couldn't move across it. All those of the clutch were stuck where they were. They could try rolling around, sure, but that was unpleasant, and The Mother always put them back in the position that she had chosen for them. For all practical purposes, they might as well be rooted in place.

Without being able to communicate or move, how could one possibly influence the world?

Simple. You couldn't.

They can overhear The Mother warding some stranger away with her words, and have that warding be successful. Her words can cause actions. But if whoever the stranger had almost stepped on (thank goodness it wasn't Canyon) tried to do the same thing, nothing would have happened. Without The Mother, perhaps that one of the clutch would have been stepped on, crushed to dust.

What the inhabitant within Canyon comes to understand is not the inherent flow of relation and action embedded in words. What they understand is that the words of those outside the clutch, "out there," have a flow of relation and action embedded in them. Their own words do not. The words of others within the clutch do not. Those of the clutch, themself included, could bicker or make each other feel better with words as they pleased, but all of that fundamentally changed nothing. How any of them felt about things could not change the way things were.

What the inhabitant within Canyon learns is that as long as they are "in here," they are helpless. They have no control.

That awareness leaves them at the bottom of a chasm of despair.

Then they got angry.

They existed! Therefore they should have control over their own existence!

Scrabbling at the edge of the "here" they were in was like scrabbling at the face of a nearly sheer cliff. There was nothing for them to hold onto, but the way out was clear. All they needed was the right amount of force in the right direction. Surely that was something they could figure out, given enough time. That was how everything else worked so far.

I'M GETTING OUT OF HERE! they screamed. I WILL BE FREE! I WILL HAVE MY FREEDOM! NONE OF YOU CAN STOP ME! I DON'T CARE IF YOU CAN'T HEAR ME! NONE OF YOU CAN STOP ME! NONE OF YOU WILL MAKE ME STOP! I MAY TIRE AND REST, BUT I'M NOT GIVING UP UNTIL I'M OUT THERE!