“Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.” –Alan Watts quote

Superstars of science and philosophy, arts and letters (not to mention babe magnets, sex goddesses, pashas, or saints yet), rationally anchor the idea that the phenomenal world, the one we currently inhabit or dream of inhabiting someday, is made of the same stuff as Brigadoon or Shangri-La.

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” –Albert Einstein, Nobel Laureate for Physics

Einstein’s Nobel Prize medal (23K gold) may swing enough weight (over six ounces) to rationally anchor the idea that physical phenomena, what most of us call reality, is illusion, but a very persistent one. So another medal, minted of the same stuff as Einstein’s, serves to rationally anchor the idea that the existence of any physical laws is unjustifiable assumption.

“We have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up until now, that they will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future.” –Max Planck, Nobel Laureate for Physics

As ballast on our metaphorical treasure ship, Idling Well, there is a cache of 23K gold rational anchors which permit us to believe this fabulous idea holds water: the phenomenal world—all of nature including space and time, matter and gravity, is made of what we say about it.

“It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we say about nature.” –Niels Bohr, Nobel Laureate for Physics

In our nonfiction fable, we say that we each create our happiest state of mind by dreaming up and writing down a fabulous metaphor of life, the universe, et al., where we have everything we need to be as happy as any babe magnet, sex goddess, pasha, or saint.

“If you want to change the world, you have to change the metaphor.” –Joseph Campbell, quote

On the dream merchant showboat, Madison Avenue, we learned this open secret: humor and rational anchors permit people to buy fabulous dreams. So, on our metaphorical treasure ship, we never say a fabulous dream is real, let alone true, unless it is seriously funny, philosophically speaking, or grounded in the stuff that dreams, the phenomenal world, and 23K gold rational anchors are made of.

“The whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson quote