Warmth and Coffee on a Foggy Morning.....and You.

The coffee machine opens the morning by grinding beans into powder with whirling blades making the sound that sets the dogs running towards the door, and waking me up. The dogs are happy because it's been all night long since they've seen me. Yes, they sleep on the same bed as I do, but in a dog's mind, it's the same as us being apart, so we go through a morning ritual of greeting, just like I do when I get home from work. Coffee and canines; there are worse ways to start a day, yea.

I have no idea how foggy it is until I step out of the house and into it. My headlights pin a deer down in the driveway and I'm creeping towards it as the doe stands and stares at me. What is it about light that blinds these creatures?

You're the first person I make contact with today, Reader. You sit there in a place I've never been, and you're a person I may never meet, but this is me and this is you, too. I find myself hoping you have good coffee, and that you're warm enough. I hope you have the time to enjoy this, and I hope that my thoughts serve you well.

You and I are now in a pick-up truck, driving through the fog at dawn. Oh, you're here with me, I can imagine that, and if you imagine that you're here too, then we ride together. See that car in front of us? It's a white car, scary white in the fog, taillights dim in the early morning light that is muted with white fog. We'll drop back a quarter of a mile or so, and follow. Who are those people, Reader? Odd, is it not, that you and I travel together like this, yet we will never know those people just a quarter of a mile away. Are they warm? Do they have good coffee? We will never meet them. After a few miles, the fog thickens and they disappear. Did they turn off? Did they swerve to miss a deer and go into the ditch? Reader, where are they now? It worries me that such a large vehicle is now gone. I peer into the blankness but see only floaters and more fog. They are gone forever, Reader.

What if they didn't turn off or run into the ditch? What if the person driving the car was thinking about some deep mystery of the Universe and willed themselves out of existence entirely? Or what if the driver was trying to see the road ahead so desperately that he opened the doorway to another Universe? Impossible? Here we are Reader, two total strangers, hundreds, perhaps even thousands of miles apart, sharing coffee, warmth, and thoughts, and we will never meet. Who are you, really? You are male, female, young, old, infirm, healthy, diseased, clean, smelly, late for work, retired, a teacher, insane, focused, all of this, none of this, anyone, no one, and you are everyone, too.

I look away from the road, look around the cab of the truck, and try not to over focus on the fog. My eyes hurt from trying to see. Look, Reader, over to the South side of the Big Empty are power poles. There is the lifeline between us, you know. Those lines carry the power you need to be here with me. The lines that snake over poles and underground carry us together like pythons with passengers. You think my thoughts on different Universes odd, Reader? Look what it took to get you strapped in beside me. One hundred years ago, a mere eyeblink in human history, none of this existed at all, and all of a sudden, here you are.

What if right now, as I travel down the road, you all of a sudden appeared with me? Can you imagine the confusion? I sure hope you're dressed. Or not, depending on how initmate we've become, or plan on becoming.

I wonder about the car with its driver that went missing. If someone opens a doorway to another Universe does all trace of their existence here cease? But I remember the car, so how can that be? Maybe I just destroyed some sort of order in the Universe by remembering the car. Insane, Reader? But here you are with me, and we have never met. Our minds meld together with these figures, these tiny hieroglyphs, these markings on a screen and they do not exist at all, except as a form of energy.

Like you and I, Reader.

Odd, isn't it? You and I may never meet. We may never meet the person, or people, in the car, but we know of each other's existence through the wires, the energy, and the thoughts of other people. I wish you well, Reader, as we are almost to the end here. Good morning to you, good coffee, I hope you have, and warmth too. I hope you greet your canine, with love, and are greeted this way by all you meet, minus the nose in the crotch thing. We will part for now, Reader, but I carry you in my mind this day. I fog is lifting, the journey comes to an end soon, and the day begins. Thank you, Reader, for your presents in my life, and for riding with me.

Take Care,

Mike