Everything is
interrelated
If we continue
like this we will at the end
implicate all people
in our story,
living and dead.
And why only
humans and not all other
living systems, animals and plants?
Isn’t there in the
body of our painter
matter incorporated
from the bread he ate this
morning, bread made from the seeds of wheat
sprouted in the field where the raindrop of our
previous example had fallen?
And why only the
living systems?
In the water of his
breakfast coffee weren’t
there some molecules from that drop?
And the air he breathes,
doesn’t it contain
a few oxygen atoms once
connected to the water molecules of our drop?
And was not the morning
light
he saw when he visited
the island last year,
the reason which created his desire to paint
this picture?
All this had to happen
exactly so
in order that we could
reach this
moment when the artist decided
to paint our red boat.
Everything:
the hat, and the party, and the trip to the island.
And of course everything
that has happened before
and bears some relation
to them.
The mining of the
ore
from which came the
metal used
for the construction of the ship
which took him to the island.
The invention of
the internal combustion engine
which powered it.
The discovery and
formulation of the principles
of thermodynamics
allowing the construction
of the engine.
The works of Archimedes.
The thoughts of Pythagoras.
The discovery of
fire ... and so forth.
That one of them
would find a way
to use fire.
That another one later
would write a book
"on the motive
power of fire".
That another would
build a ship.
That our painter
would travel with it
to the particular
island
and would then be inspired
to paint this picture.
That in this picture
all the molecules of the pigments
would have exactly
this specific
place on the canvas.
And finally that
the painter
would make the decision
to paint a red
boat with exactly this nuance of colour
(not a little bit darker or a little bit lighter)
in this exact position (not just a little bit
to the right or just a little bit to the left).
It seems
that these ideas have
got us into really deep water.