ticket please

'cause even if you spent the next 100 years perusing every single text on every single floor at every single centre of higher learning within your immediate surroundings, you still would have only acquired one percent of one percent of one percent of the accumulated knowledge heretofore accumulated in the universe. the mathematics. and the sciences. and the arts. and the humanities. and all the other topics and pseudo topics and wannabe topics and near topics and far topics and everything else in between. and they just keep on expanding and multiplying and cannibalizing one another year after year after year. and just when you think you may have finally gotten a handle on a particular subject along comes another edition or addendum or epilogue and suddenly you're back where you started from. and the whole prospect of grasping a specific discipline seems so completely daunting and the chances of becoming a genuine authority seem so bloody overwhelming that it's a wonder anyone ever gives it a go in the first place. and all the while you've got bills to pay and minds to bend and chores to fail and relations to mend. and then there is the issue of whether or not you even care to master whatever it is that you elected to master five months earlier when you hadn't a clue about the nature of the subject matter you ultimately chose to master. and the distractions of everyday life just keep on getting louder and louder and louder. and all the while the questions just keep on getting fainter and fainter and fainter. and before you know it, the ride has come to a stop and it's time to get off.

"look, when i figure it all out, i'll be sure to let you know." - anonymous