Magellan's Log: Pneumatics 101

Pneumatics 101

by Reppy Duart, D.D.

1.
A wind blows constantly everywhere. Though it is
not exactly a wind, and what it does is not exactly
blow.

   It blows now, wherever you are, in the unlikeliest
   places. Dungeon, spaceship, doesn’t matter, it’s
   there, blowing.

2.
"But I don’t feel it," you say. Of course not. It blows
without resistance through everything. Except
your sails.

   "I see no sails," you say, "on me or anybody else."
   Eyes can no more see sails than fingernails can taste
   sugar.

3.
Proof? You want proof. Very well. Hoist your sails
(that being the only significant long-term action
for humans.)

   Hoist them, see what happens. We know what happens
   if we don’t hoist them and muck about as usual. It’s called
   "history."

4.
"Not fair," you say. "You tell me to hoist sails I don’t know
I have, and then you don’t tell me how to hoist these
non-existent sails."

   Learn to stop and pay attention. That’s all. You don’t have
   to stop full-time. You don’t even have to give up your many
   toys.

5.
You have only to learn to stop and pay attention, and then
do it as often as you can. Up go your sails, full, as you run
before the wind.

   You can no more control the wind than, well, fingernails
   can taste sugar. Your only choice is up-sail or down.
   Becalmed or not.

END

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