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 Entrevista com Chioke, um grão de areia

CHIOKE: (...) So, you say yourself that you're a person, right?

AN:Yeah, I would say I'm a person.

CHIOKE:So, like why aren't you a grain of person?

IAN: Like why do I not consider myself as like a fraction of all of humanity?

CHIOKE:Yeah, like that makes more sense. It just seems to me like if you recognise the degree to which you owed your existence to other people you might also be nicer to other people.

***

CHIOKE: I've noticed that humans have a kind of problem with, let's say, a problem with boredom. They have a problem with time, right? Because it seems to me that boredom reveals a fundamental anxiety that many humans have about their lives in the first place. A constant kind of question as to, where is this going?What should I be doing? And so, then there's not really a willingness to kind of sit and just be which I recommend.

***

CHIOKE: Yeah. So, you know, like do you know about the myth of Sisyphus?

IAN: Yeah.

CHIOKE: Yeah, that's a funny one to me because Sisyphus is cursed to roll this boulder up the hill for eternity, but really the boulder would eventually erode. I mean, a hundred thousand years or so. It would be like a little pebble. Like, just stick it out, Sisyphus. You'll be done in no time, you know?

IAN: Eventually it's just going to be sand.

CHIOKE: Yeah, exactly. And in addition,the hill will also erode. And so, you know, Sisyphus after some time would have a flat plain instead of a hill and maybe like a marble instead of a boulder.

IAN: Yeah, so, yeah. So, he's cursed for eternity, but really,hejust needs to get through I don't know 50,000 years or something.

CHIOKE: Yeah, like he should really stick to it. And then that'll show the Gods.

IAN: It's funny to think about a man serving out his eternal curse and what it is,is very easily pushing a marble along the ground.

CHIOKE: Yeah. And also,like,maybe stop conscripting innocent boulders into your curses, humans.

IAN: You know, you're right. It ultimately ends up worse for the boulder than for Sisyphus.

CHIOKE: Oh, for sure.

IAN: The boulder is destroyed while Sisyphus lives on for eternity.

CHIOKE: See what I mean? And is dizzy the whole time. I don't know. And how good is Sisyphus in conversation?

IAN: So, this might be a strange thing to say, but you seem kind of remarkably free from worry.

CHIOKE: Yeah, I mean, I guess I would say that it's hard to have anxiety when you count time in geologic ages. Like I say, I was a boulder once upon a time and I'm part of sand now. So, that was a long time period.

CHIOKE: I think that time under reflection gives one the space to think about how to direct one's anxieties. Whether to have them, what to worry about, what to fear, what to just kind of be OK with. And I think that by the time one becomes a grain of sand especially a grain of sand as small as I am,then there's not really any place for anxiety. One just kind of accepts that erosion is the only law.

IAN: I'll tell you this, I realized recently that when I go out to eat, after I order, when I'm waiting for the food to come, I realize I have a kind of low grade anxiety that I've ordered the wrong thing. And that I've set myself up for a less than optimal experience. 

CHIOKE: So, just to make sure I have this right. Human beings strive for individuality but are also intimidated by options.

IAN: Oh, yeah. That's definitely true.

— Everything is alive