cloud

 

scale is everything. when you’re on the ground, the clouds are readily identifiable. you can see the edges. you can spot them easily. when you are in the air, the cloud is no longer so identifiable. you see it in the distance, but, as you approach it, you start to doubt where exactly it begins. then, suddenly, you come to the realization that you are now in the cloud. you can’t remember exactly when you crossed the edge of the cloud but you know that you are in it now. but you were looking too hard – the line that you crossed was your realization. your mind jumped from outside the cloud to inside the cloud. you can not identify the physical limits of the definition but you know now that you are definitely in the cloud. the limit of the definition is this realization. and it differs for everyone when they suddenly realize they are in the cloud.

it is the same for all limits. you know the meaning of a word when you are in it, but when you try to find the actual limits of the word, when you zoom in to see how the word’s limits are defined, you lose all definition.

“The question that now begins to gnaw at your mind is more anguished: outside Penthesilea does an outside exist? Or, no matter how far you go from the city, will you only pass from one limbo to another, never managing to leave it?” (Calvino Invisible Cities “Continuous Cities” 158)