Ahhhh, Nathen my little grasshopper. My line of thought is indeed a line. A linear projection that goes to the end of space and time. Your circle of thought however, always comes back to the same place.
And how do you know that true wisdom would not have been if that guy in your story was smoking the mattress? Circular thought may not see that as an option, whereas linear thought can.
Bishop to Q4, Bishop takes Knave.

ok, let me attempt to describe & summarize what we are doing, here...
(yea, I know..a flight of fancy, on the order of a young condor, riding the currents, high over the Andean plains)
...We most ardent devotees of SO are debating the relative merits of symbols, of abstract thought..in doing so... we use symbols (written words), to describe symbols, (geometric shapes and cyphers, i.e. circles and lines) to evoke the essense, of these thoughts.
To do so, we utilize the electronic symbols, of digital media, i.e.,ones and zeros, whch are, ironically, lines and circles, to represent none other than lines and circles....!!!!
This tasks evokes an image of the Flying Wallendas, moving slowly, single file, in the setting sun, over Bishop Nathen's beloved Grand Canyon, trodding ever so gently, on a strand of dental floss...
hmmmm, that works, for me...! now,.... please pass that yummy potato salad,..... cool?

"meantime, Ill be sailin', down that highway in the wind"
Arlo

I dunno Bumper. I thought we were all just having a community attack of cerebral flatulence. Sometimes you learn more from attacks of cerebral flatulence, than you do from planned premeditaded thought.Ommmmm.....
Stop thinking "SO" much, you might pull a brain muscle!

Having reached a state of MU, or as some of my girlfriends have said it MOOOOOO, (a state of nothingness, or zero) I must agree with Bumper on this matter.

But what of Larry in this discourse you ask?
where does he stand, and what is it that he is saying?

Larry is stating that his thoughts are like passing boxcars, that he observes one at a time. He can only see one large thought at a time and therefor only that thought exist, in his limited time and space. Bumper and I, are saying that to a bird in flight over Larry's train of thought, several cars can exist at the same time, but neither the limited views of Larry or the bird are complete, as the complete train is there, with all of it's hindreds of cars, it's cargo and it's tracks, but even beyond the train,,,,yes, even beyond the thoughts of Larry, there is a world spining into the future.

heehee, Larry, I haven't had a planned, premeditated thought, since 1958! they just pop out, like ker-nals of corn, slowly heating in a gerbil driven microwave.
I like your train analogy, Nathen, but then, I like trains!!
any word from Blunderites, live & remote, at the Church? Larry... are you in Western Mass, now? if so, have ya'll sung the Sarah 'N Diputy song, yet? Is Ceashel video taping away? those of us, in absentia...(or Ukiah, even) wanna know!!
Nathen, where's Becky? Did she run away, with the circus?

On my way at 3:00 today....but I won't be near a computer when I go!
And Bump, I would not put too much faith in what some guy that can't outwit mouses has to say!
Those birds that fly above the train do fail to see the track, and the track is where the answers are to be found. My boxcar is one with the track, and at the same time one with the birdshit on it's roof.Ommmmm....

have a safe and enjoyable trip, Bumper and I shall just have to think or great thoughts without you.

aha! theres the difff, right there.. Nathen sees thoughts as synaptic bursts... like soap bubbles..when they come to a conscious level, they burst, and since.. awareness of a thought roots it in a context of time & space, where before, it was a thought, with the originator of the thought, selectivly oblivious, of a context, in which to think the...ummm... thought..i think...!
So, the distinguishing feature between consciousness and unconsciousness, seeems to be the prescense or absence of, specificity...!!!!!!
...ironically, a defining feature, of SO, as well,
Notice that in Nathen's brief post, and my Arlo-esque ramble, at no time did we resort to the use of geometric symbols...
the shiny irons.. (see "Little East Texas Red" for definition, if lost, here... thanks)...of the cosmic bullet night train of linear projection didnt float thru our commincations, in any form...
me thinks Larry, in clarifying, or, more approp... "LARRYFYING" SO, he often slips ever so close to the Mordor-like realm of normality.
he was right, though ......THIS IS scary stuff...!

Have you noticed that today the average IQ here has risen, I wonder if that has anything to do with Larry being away?

I really should not pick on Larry, he being handi-capped and all, some people do not know he has face the day to day world being totally insane.

Now Bumper, he is one confused bird, he says he is in Florida and yet posts that he is in California.

Silly Nathen.. I'm in N Cal, moving to FLA, Nov 5th. I seeme to remember, last Christmas, you were gonna truck trees, from N Carolina, to SF, now, THAT's confused..!

I have seen pioneers move faster with a team of oxen, what's a matter you?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Nathen:

I have seen pioneers move faster with a team of oxen, what's a matter you?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You've SEEN pioneers? Sheesh! How old ARE you anyway!! <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/smile.gif" width=15 height=15> <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/peace.gif" width=16 height=16> Just kiddin!

Edited to correct my own spelling.

<center><FONT COLOR="#000080">--- Edited 1 times, lastly by Pat Rainey on Oct 06, 2002 ---</FONT></center>

Pat, I fully imagine Nathen trading ginseng roots, with the Catawba Tribe, along the Appalachan Trail, the ? is........what did Nathen get, in return...? hmmm?

I am old, very old and getting older, but not being subjected to just one time and place, I have seen a few things, tell did the Wright boys ever get their aeroplane off the ground?

Bumper says I'm starting to sound normal, and Nathen says I'm totally insane. Are they saying the same thing? I think they may be. But enough of that, "SO" should describe a person from the inside out, not the outside in. Ommmmmm....

It's nice to see that you two didn't piddle too much in the sand box while I was away.