Fortune's Fool

I've always loved the image of The Fool, because it's a fair analogy for my understanding of life.

Firstly, I believe that the natural state of humanity is ignorance, and we're always fighting it- lighting a candle in a universe of darkness. I've yet to see a revelation that I thought was worth a damn, but slow and careful reasoning lets us creep forward, like the blind leading the blind. Don't get too attached to certainty you think you've found, though, because the fool in the illustration isn't the first one to step over a precipice.Secrets!

Maybe the fool is the Socrotean fool: the only wisdom I have is a grasp of the extent of my ignorance.

That precipice could also be death, of course. And we cynics and nihilists and hedonists walk towards it, forever struggling to understand and knowing that our task is probably impossible. We look up to the sky and see nothing but lifeless stars. Emotion is ultimately meaningless, we say to ourselves, so why not be happy? And so, sweet smell of flowers in the air, we whistle our way through life.

We walk unremarked by the universe, so absurd in the mere fact of our existence as to be entertainers for the dogs and mountains. We cannot peer ahead through the gathering dusk to see what is up ahead: our temporal nature means guesses are our guides.

For example, I planned to give you a great update about Dracula two days ago, but the internet ate it and my connection stopped working.

I am fortune's fool.