From International Viewpoints (IVy) Issue 7 - August 1992
The Science of Knowing How To Know According to Alfred
By Frank Gordon, USA
Two hunters were walking in the woods. One said. "Hey Joe, I've got a
pill that will make you smart".
"Yeah? Let me try it". And he munches on it. "Gee. I don't feel any
smarter".
"Well. Try another".
"Hey. That's not a pill. That's a rabbit turd".
"See, you're getting smarter already".
My oldest brother Alfred, now deceased, told me this Sufi-like story
when I was very young, and it could have been original with him. He
majored in philosophy at Bowdoin College, and this remained his real
passion even as he became a successful insurance broker.
He also wrote a short Cosmology theorizing that the universe arose
because of Joe's desire to be able to go down to the corner and get a
cup of coffee.
In his later years, he summed things up with "The world is just as it
is, and not otherwise". This is similar to Gurdjieff's view that many
things would be possible if people were not "People".
It's interesting that Alfred and Ron were in the same generation: and
that the gist of Alfred's story is expressed in a less earthy form by
Ron's "All I'm trying to do is get you to look".