The Depressed Philosopher

Lifetimes ago in that distant dream and time of yesterday lived a philosopher. Not a philosopher that studied people in their vastly mundane lives but a philosopher that studied the most complex philosophic topic of all time. Many the great man attempted the simple feat and perished while attempting it. The topic of study is not as near as important as the method used to study. The man Niug Nep a visionary in his own right and a genius in every one else’s. Niug lived in a town or more accurately between two towns in the farm lands near the ocean.

Living with nearly six billion people he found that he was crowded in his small single residence farm house that protected him from the rain and the ever present shoe salesmen. With the population of the small farm house ranging in the unknown category Niug always fashioned that the single toothbrush which he called a teethbrush stemming from an agnostic discussion ten years prior should not be used for so many people. Niug’s studies required him to socialize a great bit with the locals of which did not wish to socialize due to a rare linguistic problem.

Niug looking past this, Niug had positioned himself in the lobby of the local hotel to talk to incoming travelers about all manner of things but mostly just gave directions, however poor directions they where, to some large room on the third floor. Donations were offered to Niug at a surprising rate and thus lead him to wander into a shop with a stone floor that was well worn and wet. The floor was of great interest to Niug and he had discussed his interest in depth with it a week ago.

“What is the meaning of life” was his query. He had in time, questioned the form of the answer to help him identify a form to the answer, however he found that any answer could do and the question was most commonly answered with yet another question. Not frustrated Niug had noted the profound nature of the question was great in size and mystery. After years or a moment of thought over the size and type of answer being a mystery in and of its self he rolled over the towel settled in the sand onto the hot baking sand surrounded by sand on a sandy beach to sip a little more out of his now warming cold drink that sat perched under a strange tissue structure that resembled a semicircle with another semicircle attached to it along with a strange semicircle to give it height. Niug had seen that shape before. With the hazy ocean beating the moving sand into loud rhythmic sessions of silence Niug decided that the next drink was to be lacking in nature’s great fermentation for sanity reasons due to the observation of a strange semicircle shaped canvas semicircle with another semicircle making it taller above his head shading him form the bright light burning his skin.

Niug, in an attempt to make things easy, related the sandy beach to his quest. “This was not the best way to go at it” Niug said softly. Niug looked at the ocean and stopped. Relating a topic to his quest gave him a headache, furthermore he noticed that it created wrinkles on his face. Relations to topics became a consuming thought in Niug’s busy head. Dependencies, requirements, expectations, and the hopes of being symbiotic all weighed heavily on Niug. He turned over and reset his hour egg timer so as not to burn his darkened skin even though he rested under the strange canvas object. With a much closer view of the sand and another hour to stare at it Niug looked for a simple idea that would help him rationalize his quest like all of the agnostics. While observing the tiny glowing balls of glass he realized that the sand was in a particular state of rest as was he.

Resting in the sand, laying in the sand, sleeping in the sand, making sand castles, being lazy, climbing the mountain, all ways of explaining what he was doing at that moment, some more accurate than others. Niug needed some results, all this work with out results was worthless or just less than most expectations. Should his results form rules for the answer or guidelines. Niug likes the firmness of rules but also the softness of guidelines. Niug in an attempt to ease his work created BOBs. These BOBs as he calls them are ideas that could form a rule or a guideline if a person saw fit to use them that way. His first BOB would be simple to define the goal of the BOBs. Shrubs are good, thought Niug as his childhood adornment of the green fences of the poor and art of the rich grew in his mind. “Good”, thought Niug as he laid his first BOB into stone by writing it in the sand.

BOBs and relations where enough to wear Niug down, needing rest and nourishment Niug sat up. Next step was to stand, while Niug knew this he also thought about gathering his things while he was still close to the ground. Gathering his things and noting his first BOB on a note pad Niug started his journey to the hotel that catered to his needs. The International Hotel of Places or IHOP as everyone called it was a brisk 14 meters from his resting place and made for a safe stop on the way up the hill to his bed every night, although some nights he spent on the beach he liked to remember the purpose of a bed. The IHOP was busy in the afternoon when this great bird would land a kilometer away and the IHOP mass transit system would cart guest from the so called airport to the hotel. Airport is what everyone called it in there different ways. Niug thought that flightport or landing/takeoff area was much more accurate. Niug was amazed that most of the guest coming in, like him did not communicate well with the locals.

The’ guest most always shoved money in Niug’s hand or pocket which bothered Niug at first, later he found that directing this money to the bartender helped with his tab at the beverage repository. People must drink to live. Niug marveled at the sheer size of his quest in comparison to how simple human interaction seemed. Human interaction was the one thing that Niug thought wrong towards. He enjoyed talking to people and grew a little each time. Niug suggested to himself that growth was predestined. People decide their attitude before they start talking and rarely change. Convinced that everyone was running from some thing Niug ran to the bathroom for some mental relief.

The burning light was up early as the night light shoved off to sea. The micron sized house heated quickly under the sun telling all of its residents that the beach was much cooler. This morning the floor came quickly as Niug failed to fly yet again. Niug learned about the complexity of flying as a kid and did not shake away the headache until he found a definition that he liked much better in some required reading for his field.

Rolling across the floor the mentioned reading in question was located. Staring at the cover Niug knew what he must do today. Some people said it was the heat and others claimed it was the drinks but only Niug knew it was on purpose that he did his random weekly sand drawing. If it were not for the placement and Niug’s attempts to protect this art of his, everything would be fine. Three hours after the tide came in and two hours and forty five minutes after Niug started yelling at the great pacific that Niug never much cared for as a name for a large body of water, it suddenly became quite, then suddenly Niug went back to his yelling. Niug learned that dramatic pauses are way under used as a form of humor.

“Humor should relate to BOBs some how… “ thought Niug as he pulled his limbs to the wooden booth in the bar. A waitress came to get Niug’s order. Niug new the look on the waitress’ face well. She took to Niug with a fancy for talking while she wrote which in turn messed up his order. Niug was a bright young man and had taken steps to correct this issue. Looking at the daily special board and choosing the deadliest portion to his liking he waved a set of fingers at the bartender who promptly looked at the board, then nodded. The waitress’ voice was growing in Niug’s ear as he looked up to find her at his side. With all of the typical greetings aside Niug smiled and asked her what he should eat for dinner. Maria leaned over bumping Niug and pulled out the menu and proceeded to point out all the dishes he had eaten before. After coming to the conclusion that he had eaten everything in the menu Maria suggested that he wait a bit and go home with her for a home cooked meal. Niug was getting used to this type of thing from the ever increasing female population of his world. Politely as could be he said that he would join her on the condition that she had a Dr Pepper in her cooler. The population of Niug’s home was exactly 10,000 times larger than that of Dr Pepper in this distant land of Chile.

Romance in Niug’s life was not found. He had attempted it before and found it to be painful at best. Loving Dr Pepper as much as he did created an “in” for his personal wants. Maria had worked at finding Dr Pepper before and failed but tonight was her night to shine. “Bottle or can?” she replied to the now dumbfounded Niug. “Bottle” he answered attempting to not sound as startled as he was. Maria stood up and walked to the bar returning with a cold bottle of Dr Pepper and a note written by the bartender. The note was written below a scratched out order and it read “Sorry” or so Maria explained to the linguistically challenged Niug. Niug fancied a strong woman but feared a reasonably intelligent one greatly. Maria was playing his game against him and this was reason enough to worry him. Leaving the bar with Niug in tow Maria marched triumphantly down the street to her house.

Niug attempted to sum up Maria before, but he had not quite put the loose ends together. Tonight he was staring at Maria and putting some other more interesting parts together. Maria was a holdover from a large dig near town a few years back. She became frustrated with the incomplete findings. Happening on Niug one day and dumping her frustrations changed her life in an arguably good way. After hours of listening on that fateful day Niug leaned forward and covered Maria’s mouth with his had and asked her to speak his native language. After hearing her out he answered with an answer that was so profound it bounced around Niug’s head at random times like now.

“Our culture here on earth has a funny way of forgetting and a regular habit of not taking notes. Without notes, and always forgetting we simply do it again. Nature on this planet refuses to move forward to fast, so don’t get in a hurry.” Niug had said on that day of days. Maria, being Irish as she was, did not hear him completely. After some repetition and a swift beating of information she understood completely. Arriving at her house, right on the ocean, they entered to find Maria’s cat Sands leaving the freshly opened door. Niug quickly mentioned the cats intent to further ruin his art like most of the town. “Speaking of….” Maria started “… what did you draw this time, a lot of the folks were talking.” as she stared at Niug with a small grin. Niug sucking down his last Dr Pepper smiled and looked at the bottle. Niug had not felt true happiness like this for a while or longer. He looked down the kitchen stairs to meet Maria’s eyes and then another Dr Pepper bottle. Niug opened the bottle and sniffed the Dr Pepper before he drank his drink. Now ready to talk Niug sat at the breakfast bar, smiled, grinned, and asked what Maria thought it was. Claiming not to know and not having the chance to look she held back a grin. Niug was now thinking of what that meant and how he could tell her about his drawing. “I will never be good at sand art.” Niug started on an apparent speech, “Today I worked on some art that could only be described as a masterpiece.”, he finished by taking another drink. Taking up a small piece of paper and a pen Niug attempted to recreate it for Maria. The drawing cannot be equaled with words so a copy follows.

Maria asked if the drawing is of a wine barrel. Niug grinned and laughed a little as he started, “It is what ever you want it to be and most of those things are happy things including: Beer Keg, Wine Barrel, Barrel of Monkeys, Pill, Coffee Can or whatever you can make out of it.”. Maria was less than impressed but hoping there was more she prodded with “What brought this about?”. Again Niug was grinning from ear to ear as he sat up straight.

“Whats for dinner, dear?” Niug boldly asked to change the subject. Maria smiled and brought out a small wooden crate full of oysters, crab, lobster, and a wrapped package of salted pork. Maria was now grinning ear to ear her self as she pulled out a large sauce pan to begin cooking with. Maria turned around suddenly and stared in to Niug’s eyes with all the calmness she could muster and ever so coolly told Niug “Dinner is not going to make its self, hands off the buns until after dinner.”. Niug asked if he should help and then if he could using his semantics carefully. Maria asked Niug to start the rice and set the table. The pi eta hit the spot with Niug, and Maria was now feeling quite good.

The full moon that night was ironic in many ways to Niug as he sat on what was quite possibly the best porch in his world. Having found the coffee and figured out the operation of the maker Niug sat up sipping his warm drink. He had questioned Maria about her joining him on the porch with the coffee but was turned away with a request for sleep. Niug watched the moon slip across the sky and the waving water which was found to be much more satisfying than the sun. It was bordering on cool and a slight breeze had made its way down the mountain to Niug. Maria was on Niug’s mind and showed no sign of leaving his train of thought.

The love and study of life is what interested Niug Tuesdays. Since it was in fact a Tuesday Niug was discussing in great depth the matters of relations which he quickly traced to religion and procreation. Procreation was the foundation of religion in Niug’s overly busy brain, it interested him now more than ever. Life he could only describe as the time between not existing. Feeling more like a moralist agnostic lawyer Niug looked for a way to sound less vague about the topic. Looking up to see a smile he realized that Maria had now chosen to join him. Hugging Maria slightly as she rest on his belly. Niug looked at the water for his moon to become disappointed that it had left him. Maria with her closed eyes repositioned herself into a more fetal and comfortable shape. Niug was happy to have the warmth of Maria and her blanket in addition to a very hug friendly belly pillow.

Shortly after Maria left for work that afternoon Niug found some food at a small shop and ordered two deliveries. Niug used the afternoon and part of the evening to reflect on the recent events in his life with a short interruption to help Pedro Martinez with some schoolwork. Niug concluded that while the events Monday night where most grand they did not warrant a major change in his life. At dusk Maria joined him on the beach in a bit of confusion as Niug was sitting alone with no drink. Niug invited Maria to join him and gave her a small pistol.

The flare was larger than Niug had expected as Maria attempted to hide behind him. The flare attracted some attention that Niug had expected and some he did not expect like the local law enforcement boating squadron. The attention Niug expected included four young boys carrying a small barrel, a small short table, and a suitcase looking box. Niug smiled at Maria and asked her not to think to much of it. Maria grinned and suggested that it be a daily practice. The small barrel was half full of popcorn with the top half containing sandwiches which was sat on top of the small short table beside the box with a handle. Niug opened the box to reveal two bottles and several glasses all safely tucked in to small holes. Niug and Maria enjoyed the simple meal and then enjoyed the second bottle which they finished quickly.

Once again Niug had his warm pillow and a blanket he had stashed under the beach chair. Niug was approaching sleep as he stared at the stars on a very typical night. Stars he thought, beautiful but accidental. “Beautiful but accidental” Niug said which awoke Maria. Maria asked what he meant by “beautiful but accidental”. Niug looked down into Maria’s eyes before he spoke, “Life is beautiful but accidental.” as he pointed up to direct Maria’s attention. Now with four eyes staring at the starry night Maria was awake and proved it with a phrase, “beauty is accidental, life is ours, meanings are for communication.”. Pulling out his notepad Niug quickly wrote Maria’s phrase down.

Maria picked the notepad out of Niug’s hand and received a nod from Niug. Upon opening the notepad she found an index with page numbers, as the pages flipped by she noticed that some pages where empty and others had paragraphs with missing sentences. Maria read for hours while Niug held her away from the stars safely next to him. The notepad had become more of a notebook but was so well organized that Maria was concerned by the blank spots for text. Maria asked about the blank spots and where Niug had put her phrase. Niug took the notepad and pealed a sticker on the front off to show her the title of his work that read “Meaning in beauty, a story of life, love, and reason by Vernon Lawrence”, after replacing the sticker he flipped into the puzzle and showed Niug a quote by Erin Maria Thompson.

Maria jumped up and tripped over the small table to land in the sand, leaning up she looked at Niug asking “Who are you?”. “No one so important to be scared of, just some one that knows a good secret about relaxing.” Niug said motioning Maria to rejoin him. Maria crawled over to the warm blanket and rolled up hiding her face from Niug. “If you want to know me you will need to read this notepad a few more times. If you worry about the names you will not finish the story. If you are confused, remember that you have the right to be confused as you were a few years back.” Niug said while squinting on a star that had the slightest red tint to it. Maria peeked out to see Niug staring up and marveled at his calm simple stature sitting there. Maria took the notebook and opened it up to browse.

The notebook was a little rough on the edges as Maria soon found. She marveled at its simple form and how thoughts did not approach the paper edge closely while they beautifully crept down the page to continue on yet another page. The spelling was off at times but the meaning was not to be lost. The story was sweet in depth while flowing to climaxes and twist that where constantly used to define ideas. Niug was still looking up when a falling star surprised him in to a smile which lead to a grin. Maria had swallowed the first few pages and closed the notebook, simply because the page was blank with just the word “Intermission”.

Niug reached into his bucket of cool water to find a bottle. He offered some to Maria before he consumed the sweet fruit juice. “Maria can I see the notebook for a moment?” Niug asked reaching out his arm. After handing Niug the notebook she moved over to sit beside Niug mainly to see what he was writing. Niug filled in a date which happened to be the current date and then he read a page up front. “Niug, I was just wondering why the story shifts points of view so much?” Maria whispered into Niug’s ear. Niug’s simple answer “Economics change from macro to micro depending on the current state. So we should learn to see the macro view of our lives and our work.” which danced around in the air and confused Maria greatly.

Yesterday

After some nagging Niug started to unravel the past that would lead him to the this beach in Chile of all places. Niug’s past was much of a mystery to the locals but not so much as to what he was saying to them at odd moments or about them for that matter. “I was born, grew up, educated myself, grew up further, learned a secret, retired.” explained Niug in a very sharp grin.