Ineffable - Sept 12 2025

 

Ineffable

Sept 12 2025

It’s all a black box.

The electronic machines 

we depend upon,

the hydraulics 

of everyday plumbing,

and even how a zipper zips.

Sometimes, it seems life is as well.

Impenetrable.

Beyond my comprehension. 

No way to know

how cause leads to effect.

I just zip it up

hit the switch

or flush,

input, output, done.

Unfortunately, life is not a crash-proof box

designed to be recovered.

And the answers are harder to find

than a sturdy orange vault

that’s all-seeing

and designed for calamity.

(So “black”

but only metaphorically.

Orange — harder to rhyme

but easier to find.)

So you crash and burn

and wonder how it happened.

Stick to the flight plan

we’re told to follows

and end up lost at sea

or hitting the mountaintop.

Matters of the heart

as well as the simplest things.

Like the time you turned to watch 

horrified

as the toilet overflowed

at your future in-laws.

No way to know

what you did wrong

or how to make it stop.

Where to toss the towels

you mopped it up with.

When recovery

seems impossible. 

When it’s not the interdependence 

of a complex society

of high tech and specialized skills

that makes our lives possible

if not pleasant;

it’s forgiveness,

the kindness of others,

and the black box of love

in all its ineffable mystery.

Most of us have no idea how anything works. High tech, sure. But also the simplest stuff, like how toilets flush, a zipper works. Transport us back just a few generations, and we’d be utterly helpless:  unable to do anything by ourselves.

“Blackbox”, the term used for the mysterious inner workings of high technology. But a term borrowed from the blackbox on planes, which are designed to record flight data, survive a crash, and be recovered.

For someone like me, everyday life can also be a black box; hard to understand. But certainly not the other all-knowing and indestructible kind. If only I could at least compensate for my bafflement with keen awareness and survivability.