The Void

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more. – Morpheus

Here’s your warning. Once again, this post will only be interesting if you’re following my development. Otherwise, it’s a lovely weekend. Go outside.

I think many of my colleagues view me as a blue pill kind of guy. Slowly moving up in the ranks, gathering titles and awards, doing what it looks like I should be doing as life rolls along. In fact, I am so far down the red pill rabbit hole that I sometimes have difficulty remembering that most of the world swallowed the blue pill and can’t see past their own horizons. More to the point, I sometimes forget that others actually believe what they see and act as if this world is real.

I had a conversation recently (meaning in the last 6 months) with a good friend who is also well along the red pill path. We spoke of transformation (my silly ramblings in an earlier blog about metaphor, symbol and a kind of mental OS). What struck me was the product of this most recent transformation, an emptiness or a kind of void. I was empty, but in a full sense. I did not need to fill my life with noise in order to feel full. In fact, experiencing the void was perfectly fine. It seemed like I had a full nothing inside until called upon to act, which unleashed the full effect of my abilities on whatever project was at hand.

Blue pill would say something about anomie, or crisis, or even depression and emptiness. Red pill would understand, this is the lack of a need to fill myself with… noise.

So my question to the universe is this: What is the power of the void? Thus far, it is a stillness out of which everything happens. Perhaps there’s more?