The Oracle Has Spoken

Sometimes you're hot.

And sometimes you're so hot, you can hardly stand it. That's me for the last few days. Like Friday, I was trying to unpack the books in my un-air-conditioned office, in my un-air-conditioned workplace, and I had a moment of intense, visceral understanding of the word "sweltering". I only managed to dump out the contents of a few boxes before I was stripped down to my tank top, sweating, sticking my face in front of my tiny office fan, trying to keep my makeup from sweating off. It didn't work. And it didn't take me long to decide that rather than pass out from heat stroke and risk having a new colleague find me inert on the floor like a freshman at a frat party--which wouldn't be the greatest first impression--I should go home to try to lower my body temperature. Which didn't really work, anyway.

So the last few days, I've been hot...that hot that is so hot you don't even want to shower because the effort of hair-washing will create heat that will outweigh the cooling effects of the water...that wear-no-clothes, don't-move-much, close-your-eyes-and-think-of-winter kind of hot. Just hot.

The Secrets of the Universe

I needed to read a book.

Like you do, you know? I needed to read a book. So I went over to the shelf, and I wasn't really making a conscious choice. My hand just reached out of its own accord and selected my old copy of Jack Kerouac's Desolation Angels. I probably hadn't read it in five, six, seven years, and really couldn't remember much about it, but my hand made a beeline for it.

I stick the book in my bag and head off to an appointment. I'm sitting in a waiting room, break out the book, and crack it open. Inside the book, I find a little note that I had written for myself years and years ago. It said:

Tell The Truth Faster.

I lost my breath. It was exactly what I needed to hear. That place, that day, that moment...exactly what I needed.

Then I knew--my younger self left this for me. I left this for myself years ago so that I could discover it at this exact moment. Because at this exact moment, I need to remember to tell the truth faster.

How could I possibly know that? . . . Unless I have unlocked the secrets of the Universe. Time travel, anyone?