Page 2 - Big Idea

Act 1: Outside a large cave

UTOPIAN: (enters left, looks around area; HALFWITS emerge
during soliloquy from rocks in center, looking bewildered)

I knew it was true when I knew I’d been dreaming,
When I’d lost all control of the unconscious state,
That free-flowing source of unerring decision.

Running from hyenas—or standing up to fight,
Following my nose to hidden succulent roots,
Grooming my friends without shame or request:

All fading now into memories of freedom of action,
Choices made without mindful mediation,
Reflexes unhindered by conscious calculation.

Now I live that dream only when I lose my grip
In nighttime sleep or daytime idle fantasy:
How I miss the constant stream of pure sensation!

With that first knowledge of loss my childhood ended
In tantrums of bitterness and disappointment:
Somehow I couldn’t stop myself from waking up.

Slowly from the vantage point of that awful truth,
I looked out upon the world with eyes untrained
To see beyond the surface of common things.

Soon those simple shapes and colors were confounded
With vague abstractions of increasing subtlety,
Categories overlapping in distinction.

I can’t say where that mental chaos might have led;
No sooner did I show signs of self-awareness
Than I was singled out and quickly taught to speak.

Sometimes I wonder about the founder of thought:
Male or female, young or old: whoever it was,
Their courage and intelligence had to be great,
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