'When the ultimate object is negated by the ultimate subject, I shall remain as I,' stated the owl.
'Won't you feel rather lonely,' asked the rabbit, 'if such a thing should ever happen?''Who could there be to feel anything?' replied the owl; 'there is no "you".'
'Then who remains?' asked the rabbit, one ear raised.'I, of course, how could I not remain? There is no "I" not to remain.'
'Then who is it who remains?' demanded the rabbit, raising her other ear.'I remain, of course,' urged the owl patiently, 'there is no "who".'
'Puzzling for a poor vegetarian!' commented the rabbit with humility.'"Who"s are extended in "space" and in "duration", vegetarian or not,' explained the owl, 'and there aren't any.'
'Seems a pity to me,' sighed the rabbit, dropping both ears dejectedly; 'what would life be like without them?''What is life like with them?' suggested the owl.
'A bit of a gamble, I admit,' said the rabbit, flapping both ears cynically, 'but I should feel lonely.''Impossible,' explained the owl, 'rodents are only spatio-temporal concepts, and "loneliness" is relative to "multiplicity". As I, you could not know either.'
'But as you I would no longer be me,' objected the rabbit.'Nor "I" either, if your grammar were better,' corrected the owl. 'Anyhow "me"s make nonsense - there is only I.'
'And "I" is not - as you have often explained?''Precisely,' the owl agreed, 'an "I" cannot be, but I am.'
'Yet you are?' the rabbit objected.'No, no!' explained the owl with inexhaustible patience. 'I am, but there cannot be any such "thing", object, as a "you" or a "me".'
'So, then, you are?''Relatively. Grammatical absurdities are creating linguistic confusion!' the owl explained. 'I am, and you are only as I.'
'You mean that I am only as you?''Certainly not,' said the owl, a trifle wearily, 'I am only I, and there is no "me", no matter who says it, or thinks he says it, acts it, does it, or lives it!'
'I almost think I understand,' said the rabbit gratefully, flapping both her ears.'You do not,' hooted the owl, 'as long as you "think you understand". "Thinking" and "understanding" are relative performances of split-mind in a time-context. Direct apperceiving in whole-mind, alone can reveal virtuality.'
'And how am I to do that?' asked the rabbit, a trifle wearily.'Come out of your burrow - and leave your self behind!' said the owl, with a piercing glance of his luminous eyes.
