The Human Experience

jacqueline | Aug. 25, 2023, 7:19 p.m. Attempt At Short Stories

Hi, hello. 

I'm starting to have more blog ideas. Just things I think would be fun to write about and pour my little heart out. I am brainstorming here, what I'm finding is that the more I write, the more things I have to come up with. The real purpose of blogging for me is to get me thinking. Thinking in a way that a writer would. I am capturing words that I've never heard and incorporating them. using them and expanding my vocabulary. It's an exercise for my brain and I think I love it. 

I loved school, to be honest. It was incredibly hard for me since I could barely focus but I loved when I felt the feeling of learning and the dots connecting. Such a good feeling when you go through life struggling to understand. Regardless, that's probably why I just love this process so much. I promised I would do so many things, and then partially delivered, and that bums me out. I realize I need to promise less or watch when I'm getting excited, so I don't over-promise when I'm in the mists of promise-making decisions. Sheesh, writing for an hour a day...Yeah, I mean maybe. It's been more like every other week, but creativity is always hitting me at very random times. I'm still working on developing discipline, but I don't think I'm too far off that path. I just wander off a little less and come back sooner, so that's progress, I guess. 

Now, for the story - 

--------------------The Human Experience--------------------

"Being in a body. Be-ing in a body. Be-*inhales deeply and exhales out coughing*-ing in a body...Eric, think about it!" 

Shermin says as he rolls over to one side on the couch to stare at the tv playing silent black and white cartoons. 

"We are be-ings man!" He jumps up from his sideways stare to his feet on the cochins and hands up in the air, joint in one hand and a piece of string he had been twirling for hours in the other. 

"WE are BE-ings being in a body! Holly shit." He stars off in an absolute THC induced amazement at the popcorn ceiling above his head. 

Eric is not amused. He's half asleep on the couch bloated after finishing an entire loaf of banana bread left behind from his moms visit. Shermin doesn't care, he is so full of excitement from his recent discovery he allows his thoughts to run ramped around the room. He jumps off the couch to begin pacing while he rips a packet of papers from his back pocket in a frenzy, as if he needs another splif immediately or all in life is lost. 

Manic, spilling Tabacco and weed everywhere, he finished rolling his think-enthusiast and lights it right away. Puffing and thinking and staring and pacing. He walks to the radio and flips through all the stations until he finds a song that matches his internal rhythm and vibration. 

He starts to pace to the beat. Starting to realize how interactive being a person really is. He can just be in this room listening to music while Eric snores himself into a food coma. He can choose to go outside or inside. He could sit down or stand up. 

"This is an incredible discovery. Once Eric wakes up, I'll explain everything, he'll be equally as impressed and surprised. This is insane." Shermin thinks to himself while circling the room and analyzing every corner of its detail as if he'd never been in this room before. 

Smoke filling up the air and a greyish cloud follows his body creating a breeze of circulating stagnant air. 

Shermin stops. Stares. "THE AIR! We are living in FILTH!" 

At this point Shermin and Eric have been in the basement getting high for about twelve hours.  Shermin, being the one who thinks more when he smokes more, and Eric usually sleeps or stays partially awake to make sure Shermin feels heard through his manic episodes. He also gets hungry and mostly forgets everything. They've found a great balance in their friendship. 

Eric finally starts waking up feeling Shermin's sudden anxiety filling the room. 

"Dude, what are you stressing over man? Wakin me up." 

 Eric rubs his eyes and sits up feeling fatter than ever regretting everything that happened between him, and the banana bread a few hours before. 

His face was feeling a little sweaty, so he gets up and walks over to the sink for a cold splash. 

"ERIC, Man listen. Dude, I don't know about you but I'm really feeling alive right now." 

Eric is patting the water off his face, "Oh yeah man?"

Shermin pulls out a piece of paper and a pen and hurries over to the coffee table. Dramatically whipping everything off the table to the floor. 

"DUDE, What the fuck." Eric hated when Shermin would make a mess being so hyper, but he knew he couldn't change the guy. 

"While you were sleeping Eric, I figured something out...I think I'm a Fucking genius!" Shermin's excitement was always very apparent over most things he was fascinated about. 

He proceeds to draw an outline of a human figure and looks up at Eric to make sure he's watching and proceeds to explain as he continues to draw. 

"So, this is us, right?" he points to the outline. "Okay...?" Eric agrees but a bit confused and still thinking of ways to digest the banana bread faster. 

"WE are this guy, Eric. And inside US is a Being" Shermin points to the outline then draws a misty squiggly-form of another figure inside the outline. Then he draws BEING in capital letters to the right of the outline and an arrow pointing inside the outline. 

Shermin looks up and holds his breath as if waiting for Eric to be blissfully changed by this phenomenal discovery he had just stumbled upon and react utterly amazed. 

Eric looks down at the cartoon and is not very amused. He also doesn't mind where the conversation goes from here so he simply looks up and says, 

"Um...Consciousness?" 

Shermin's eyes light up feeling like Eric completely understands now. 

"YES! Look...WE are the body but somebody else is inside. A BE-ing in a BODY. WE are the body." 

Eric now understanding that his friend is stoned out of his mind and just now discovering that we have individual consciousness or something. Sounds like he's splitting the human and the being in two parts.

Eric takes some time to allow his thoughts to process, trying to understand Shermin to allow consideration for his friend's excitement. Careful with his words in an attempt not to burst Shermin's bubble since Eric thought Shermin was high as a kite. 

"How would you explain the difference between the body and whatever the fuck that squiggle is inside" Eric chuckles a little because he thinks the whole thing is pretty funny. He's also stoned. 

Shermin already distracted rolling yet another frantic spliff to explain.

"Look..." He mumbles. 

"WE are the body and some-BE-ing else is watching our experience from the INSIDE!" 

Eric takes some time with this one. So, he's saying someone from the inside of us is watching, and we are the being maybe? Or the being is the squiggle. Eric just couldn't wrap his head around us just being a body. 

"Alright, explain the body...we are the body?" 

Shermin jumps up as frantic and excited as this entire time. His heart feeling full that his friend is walking down this thought journey with him. He then kneels down and eventually reaches a relaxed seated position down on the retro patterned carpet. 

"I'm so glad you asked man!" Shermin begins. 

"So, we are the body. The physical form that can walk and talk and interact with this world. That's pretty freaking cool man. This is our vehicle through this part of the universe." 

Shermin is suddenly so calm and grounded on the floor. As if completely relaxed and in an awed state. 

Eric takes a second to hear this play back in his mind. He's tasting his words carefully and realizing that Shermin is in a very deep state of thought in his mind. He's manic not because he's high, he truly feels and is passionate about this particular topic. There's a deeper meaning to his hyperactive rambles and exaggerated expressions. Because Eric is able to step back and feel and experience what his friend is describing, he realizes he has a point. This is his vehicle through life. 

"So, then what is that BE-ing in the middle?" Eric says back to Shermin out of actual curiosity now. 

"The Witness" 

Shermin says in a whisper. 

Freaking Eric out, he stands up from his chair. 

"Dude, why are whispering?" 

Shermin looks over at Eric from the floor, calmer than he has been this entire time. Just sitting there still awed. 

"We are the body, and the witness just watches. It's just like that man. We drive it around and give it a show." 

Shermin starts to get distracted and disassociated laying all the way back on the floor as if his battery had just died. His brain finally coming to a full blow stop as he loses focus after being frantic for hours and finally begins to fall asleep. 

Yep, the crash, always happens after a long smoke sesh. Eric walks over and covers him up and puts a little throw pillow under his head. He walks over to turn the lights off in the room and as he gets comfortable on the couch pulling a blanket over and turning to his side, there is silence. 

He notices the flickering of lights from random outlets. He listens to Shermin mumble a little and shuffle himself around for more comfort in his sleep. His starts to focus on his breathing and begins to lay heavier on the couch, he's suddenly becoming more aware of the gravity stabilizing his body as if he was being held. He can feel the moments of cool air tickling his arm giving him goosebumps. Pulling up the blanket further around his body there is a rush of warmth and comfort. There's a moment, for a second, he realizes that he had been fully emersed in the comfort of his surrounding so much so there were no thoughts. It had been so silent. Thinking of that alone brough back a feeling or realization, he wasn't sure. In the silence, within himself, he pauses his breath. 

"Hello?" 

As always, 

Thank you for reading.