On the Merits of Brevity

After briefly showing my face at work I ran away into town to hunt out some standard lamps for my forthcoming show :

I was continuing to shrink, to become... what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a human being? Or was I the man of the future? If there were other bursts of radiation, other clouds drifting across seas and continents, would other beings follow me into this vast new world? So close - the infinitesimal and the infinite. But suddenly, I knew they were really the two ends of the same concept. The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet - like the closing of a gigantic circle. I looked up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens. The universe, worlds beyond number, God's silver tapestry spread across the night. And in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of man's own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature. That existence begins and ends in man's conception, not nature's. And I felt my body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing. My fears melted away. And in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation, it had to mean something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something, too. To God, there is no zero. I still exist!

I have begun to realise that such a title brings with it certain difficulties. If people ask me what my show will be called I will have to pull out a card (and not a small one). I caused the Axis "events" form to melt down when I pasted it in to the title box and only a strangely truncated version appears now. Nevertheless I have waded this far and might as well carry on. I found two perfect lamps rather quickly in the Heart Foundation charity shop a place where the foundation kindly gives it's most physical jobs to those in most danger of a sudden myocardial infarction. Unwilling to carry both across town myself I called upon Miss Dover to assist. The sight of two people carrying a large lamp each along the main street caused such a stir and feelings of public unity as to make me think the people of Ipswich would benefit from a return to a religion with a degree of pomp and ceremony.