The world$$$ whatever we might think when terrified by its vastness and our own impotence$$$ or embittered by its indifference to individual suffering$$$ of people$$$ animals$$$ and perhaps even plants$$$ for why are we so sure that plants feel no pain; whatever we might think of its expanses pierced by the rays of stars surrounded by planets we've just begun to discover$$$ planets already dead? Still dead? We just don't know; whatever we might think of this measureless theater to which we've got reserved tickets$$$ but tickets whose lifespan is laughably short$$$ bounded as it is by two arbitrary dates; whatever else we might think of this world$$$ it is astonishing. But astonishing is an epithet concealing a logical trap. We're astonished$$$ after all$$$ by things that deviate from some well-known and universally acknowledged norm$$$ from an obviousness we've grown accustomed to. Now the point is$$$ there is no such obvious world. Our astonishment exists per se and isn't based on comparison with something else. Granted$$$ in daily speech$$$ where we don't stop to consider every word$$$ we all use phrases like the ordinary world$$$ ordinary life$$$ the ordinary course of events But in the language of poetry$$$ where every word is weighed$$$ nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all$$$ not a single existence$$$ not anyone's existence in this world.
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