no would have beens

In Jerusalem, by Alan Moore, there is a group of children belonging to the Dead Dead Gang. They have all gained a dimension...which seems like something that happens when you die...and this added dimension gives them abilities that are analogous to our super-powers whenever we look in on the inhabitants of Flatland.

The children in the Dead Dead Gang can see Time for what it truly is; a direction in space. And they can traverse that direction as easily as we can walk in our world of only three space dimensions.

The children visit 1675 to see the great fire that destroys half of the city. The oldest gang member, John, is explaining to the youngest fella that this was the year in which the "Boroughs" district of the city becomes a slum. He reasons that the winds were blowing in such a way that the Boroughs were not destroyed, but the rest of the town was. After the fire, the people rebuilt the destroyed homes while the folks in the Boroughs just continued with their old...and now comparatively shabby...dwellings. This "new town" advantage continued and was reinforced down the centuries by the "better" people choosing to live in the better places.

And if only the wind had been blowing differently that day, then the Boroughs would be the good part of town and not the habitual and perennial slum neighborhood.

But the leader of the gang...her name is Phyllis...disagrees and says,

But that's not 'ow it 'appened, wiz it? Things only work out one way, and that's the way they 'ave to work out. If we'd grown up in posh 'ouses, then we wouldn't be us, would we? I'm 'appy bein' 'oo I am. I think this wiz 'oo I wiz meant to be, and I think that the Boroughs wiz meant to be 'ow it wiz, as well.

(Language also changes when you die. You keep your accent, but being above Time causes you to pick up some tense-less verb forms. I'm sure you can figure it out.) 

Phyllis is a very wise character who speaks as a surrogate for the author and his views on Time. Everything has already happened...and you'll see this truth more clearly when you die, because you will gain a dimension.

 You can look at a partially completed sudoku puzzle and figure out that one of the empty squares must be either a 3 or a 7. There are no other possibilities...and so, that square has a 50% chance of being a 3 and a 50% chance of being a 7. This is...of course...totally wrong.

No chance is involved. The square has a 100% "chance" of being what it is. You can do that same sudoku puzzle a hundred times and...if your reasoning is correct...then the square will always be what it is.

The only way that the square in question could be anything different is if we started out with a completely different initial sudoku puzzle.

Sudoku is fun because we are kinda slow as logicians. Computers think that sudoku is boring.

And this is what Phyllis is saying. Everything is as it is because everything else is as it is. There are no "would have beens" unless you change everything.

The only way to truly be anyone is to be who you are as a result of the entire context. 

Reality is a pattern...a structure...and the idea of causation is suspect. A big skyscraper is coherent and the 12th floor is related to the 23rd floor...but it does not cause it. I am coherent and structured...but my patella does not cause my liver.

In the Jerusalem book, the journey continues. Death is only the beginning. Time is Space.

Strength Test

This short post is an unsolicited compliment to a great site called Strong Towns.

I am not that old...but old enough to remember the major phases of retail business in America.

When I was a little kid (in the 60's), my Mom took me shopping. I went with her on all her local errands. She took me to the:

• Bakery
• Pharmacy
• Barber
• Butcher
• Grocery
• Fish Market
• Dry Cleaner
• Hardware Store
• Shoe Store

And all of these places were in what we always called the "down town". You parked on the street, usually in a diagonal space (herringbone), and walked to the various store fronts. Every store was owned by a family...by someone you knew and who knew you.

I am not trying to make a bid for sentimentality. This post is not about nostalgia.

As I got older (70's and 80's), things changed and we entered the world of franchises and malls. I remember thinking it was real exciting to wander thru the indoor pedestrian malls and enjoy the air-conditioning and the dazzle of the window displays. The mall was way more than just shopping...it was about eating, entertainment, and above all socializing.

And now...my health club is in a declining mall. I go there quite often and I have tracked its precipitous decline. It is 80% dead. What remains are the service businesses (hair salons and the gym) plus a small batch of dubious retail store fronts, like vape stores, eyebrow trimmers, phone case repair, and an antique consignment place.

The malls killed the downtowns. Amazon killed the malls. Are we about to see a downtown redux?

If you only read one thing on the Strong Towns site, make sure you check out the Strength Test. We are not all urban planners and sometimes the jargon of that profession can be daunting, but this strength test is just ten questions and really, you don't need to know all the answers...it is sufficient to just think about the questions. You'll quickly get a sense of the philosophy that the site's author is promoting and you'll know more about your own town and whether (or not) it is strong.

Strong Towns is a brilliant site with a great and timely message for America.