Could I tell you how to live by the sea? You wouldn't listen -- it's not in your nature to question the intention of something so reliable as tides, something so full of certainty as salt. What are we? Mineral deposits, a certain collection of chemicals, our synapses that pull -- and release -- and pull again the rubber band of a mandible, the marrow pulse of a mandolin. If we live in ridiculous times, your thoughts offer no compensation. If there were alternatives to be that other than what you are, we would all pounce around in Emperor's clothes -- borrowed, like modern personalities.