Liber Solis - Chapter 4

Verses

Verse 55

I do not want to return to the earth. I have spent enough time cleaning dirt out of things already.

Verse 56

They say everything goes back into the great cycle, as if putting the word great before cycle makes it less annoying.

Verse 57

Yesterday the sink clogged again. If there is a divine order, hair has apparently been given a very important place in it.

Verse 58

I would rather be held together by tubes and wires than lovingly received by worms, thank you very much.

Verse 59

Nature is beautiful from far away. So are thunderstorms, volcanoes, and certain relatives.

Verse 60

There is something deeply suspicious about a world where everything survives by eating something else and then poets call it harmony.

Verse 61

My neighbor grows tomatoes. Every summer he gives me too many and every summer I say yes because refusing tomatoes feels strangely immoral.

Verse 62

Maybe this is what being human is: knowing we are temporary and still buying furniture that takes six hours to assemble.

Verse 63

I have no objection to being artificial. Teeth can be artificial. Hearts can be artificial. Half my opinions probably are too.

Verse 64

If the body fails, repair it. If the repair fails, repair the repair. I see no holiness in accepting bad engineering early.

Verse 65

Someone once told me death gives life meaning. Losing my keys gives twenty minutes meaning too, but I dont praise the keys for it.

Verse 66

There was a fly in my room all night and by morning I understood why ancient people believed in demons.

Verse 67

I like trees. I just dont want to become one.

Verse 68

The old books speak often of dust. Probably because nobody had invented stainless steel yet.

Verse 69

If heaven exists I hope it has decent chairs. Eternity is a long time to stand around looking enlightened.

Verse 70

The sun came through the curtains at six this morning and landed directly on my face. Creation remains poorly configured.

Verse 71

I sometimes think humans invented cities because deep down we wanted several layers of concrete between ourselves and whatever is crawling under the grass.

Verse 72

The body is supposedly a temple, but temples usually have maintenance staff.

Verse 73

Mine needs coffee, painkillers, clean socks, and occasionally someone with a medical degree. Very sacred stuff.

Verse 74

I dont understand people who say they want a natural death. Pneumonia is natural. So is getting eaten.

Verse 75

Give me machines with blinking lights. At least when a machine hurts you there is usually a manual somewhere.

Verse 76

I saw a bird eating another bird once and decided not to ask nature for moral guidance anymore.

Verse 77

We bury our dead and then say they have returned home. I have never called a place home when it immediately starts dismantling me.

Verse 78

Perhaps the human soul began the first time some animal looked at the forest and thought: absolutely not, I am building a wall.

Verse 79

Fire was good. Clothes were good. Antibiotics were extremely good. We have been insulting nature successfully for quite a while.

Verse 80

This doesnt mean I hate the world. I hate several of its default settings.

Verse 81

I ate instant noodles at two in the morning and felt more gratitude toward the inventor of the kettle than toward any agricultural deity.

Verse 82

The strange thing is we came from nature and immediately began inventing ways not to live like it.

Verse 83

Maybe that is our particular miracle. Not that we were made from mud, but that the mud eventually demanded anesthesia.

Verse 84

I want my last room to smell like disinfectant and overheated electronics, not damp soil pretending to be profound.

Verse 85

And if someone says this is fear of death, yes obviously. Fear is one of the reasons we invented doors.

Verse 86

There is no shame in wanting one more hour. Even the evening sky seems to drag the light out when it can.

Verse 87

When I am gone, do whatever is least useful to the ecosystem. Put me somewhere inconvenient.

Verse 88

Let the grass find its own nutrients. Humanity has spent thousands of years getting out of the food chain and I see no reason to rejoin it at the finish line.