If there are gods, humanity is safe as long as they need straight men.

    Today I had possibly the best discussion of the nature of reality that I have ever had. There were all the ingredients for greatness: a beautiful, brilliant woman who is as interested in the subject as I am, an exotic venue, and plenty of leisure time. Our conversation began with the Vedas and the notion that all is illusion, ranged through Taoist idea that no true reality can described, touched on the importance of dreams as understood by Native Americans and by Neil Gaiman, and mentioned quantum mechanics and a bit of Wicca. I will spare you the details; you would have had to have been there, but I am kind of glad you were not, because this was the kind of fun I am kind of glad I got to be selfish about.

    How the gods must laugh at our puny human efforts to understand subjects of such magnitude, you surely say. Nor do I doubt you, but on this occasion the gods had another reason for hilarity: For at the time, it did not occur either to me or to my companion that there was anything unusual about the venue in which our conversation was taking place. I did not realize until many hours later that the nature of that place itself might in itself have constituted a kind of self-referential whimsical comment on the very subject of the discussion. (I would not care to speculate on who sent the message.)

    For this profound discussion on the nature of reality took place in my hostess’s commercial art studio, where she makes fabulous jewelry of diamonds and rubies and all manner of other precious stones…

    By means as simple as the gesture of a hand and the inscription of an incantation…

    In a stone castle with crenellated towers…

    Floating half a mile high in the sky…

    In Second Life*.

    (*) Oh, go ahead and Google it!