The Long Conversation THE LETTER PT 2 Aug. 22, 2021 by Riverwest Radio 2 published on 2021-08-24T22:49:00Z ESMERELDA: Oh dondon, I am so sorry that I had to run out of here last week so rudely. So in the middle of our conversation and so right in the middle of you sharing great news from your cousin rogerio and your aunt WTK Excerpt: DONDON: Yes, I would like to finish reading that letter to you but what happened? Why did you leave and why didn’t you respond to the message that I floated down the river for you a few days ago. You know you had me worried and that is not a very nice state to keep a friend in. ESMERELDA: I know dondon and I’m really sorry. Do you remember when I told you that I had been involved in that sleep study? That sleep exercise really? DONDON: No, I don’t think I told you. ESMERELDA: Well, I’m not surprised dondon. One important thing about the sleep study/exercise/project I’m working on is that sometimes I (or they) can’t distinguish between real life and dream life. So, perhaps I told you about the sleep study/project/exercise/engagement thing but only did so in a dream and so I have a memory of it and, DID tell you, but you do not have a memory of it. You see? DONDON: Well, not clearly but you know I hardly ever wear my glasses anymore. ESMERELDA: What I am saying dondon is I have been in between asleep and awake for these last few weeks and I am not entirely sure what I am doing in real life and what I am doing in dream life. Like, when you were reading the letter to me last week I thought we were on a boat and that there was a very learn-ed turtle asking me to jump off the boat and help her with some flower arranging that she was doing. And she even said, “oh, dondon, is that ok with you? If I just borrow Esmerelda for an hour or so?” and you said, do you remember? You said “night is less caustic when increase in amended, less the heavy cloying scent of gardenia and more a thin silver tone” do you remember? DONDON: Well, no Esmerelda, I don’t remember because you dreamed me saying that and I did not say that so that is a memory that you would have and not me. I could never re-member that cause I did not member it in the first place. I was not a member of the construction of that sentence. ESMERELDA: Oh yes, I see how that could be tricky. Your remembering your lines from my dream. DONDON: Yes. ESMERELDA: But I do want to say that that turtle’s flower arranging skills were on point! I’d have never put moon hued Japanese chrysanthemums, you know the kind with the long dangling petals, alongside dried golden ball chrysanthemums!! Would you??? It’s almost sacrilegious! The new and the old, the humble and the boastful! And yet, the result was pure transcendence! DONDON: But how can you be sure that that was actual and not a dream? ESMERELDA: Well dondon, I just can’t and that is the point of the study…errr…exercise/project/engagement/thing. DONDON: The point how? ESMERELDA: The point to the exercise/project/study/engagement/investigation thing is to eradicate the lines between sleep and wake consciousness in the hopes of instilling a sense of dubiousness as to the general nature of consciousness to begin with. DONDON: To instill doubt? ESMERELDA: Precisely. A lot of contemporary forest factions are much too sure of their perspective and this sleep/wake study/investigation/exercise/project/inquiry/engagement thing is aimed at asking creatures to be less sure of the truth of the perspective. DONDON: sounds dangerous. Genre Audiobooks