The Zen Game

(4)

For lack of a better subject I am minded to write about something I recently saw on PBS's Independent Lens, 'The Raftman's Razor.' This short subject grabbed my attention right at the beginning. It began with the words, 'The raftman was a comic book hero perpetually lost at sea in an inflatable rubber raft.' The animated visuals showed a single male lying in a rubber raft surrounded by water. He was fully dressed in shoes and a suit, as if he had been suddenly plucked out of his normal life. He was lying on his back in the raft apparently asleep. There were no oars, clothes, food or water in the raft.

The piece then goes on to say that each issue (of the comic magazine) would always begin in the same way: he would wake up, rub his eyes, then shave his face with a pearl-handled straight razor (which in the video was actually a red-handled straight razor). Then he would think a single thought (in a little comic balloon). The first thought was, 'Chaos is the soil in which truth grows.' After this single thought absolutely nothing happened for the next 30 or so pages as the raftman just sat there in the raft staring at the ocean.

The next issue introduces a new thought: 'God smiles only on the inanimate.'

The next issue introduces yet a newer thought: 'Life is a series of meaningless poses.'

The next issue has him thinking that, ' .' (In other words, nothing.)

The fifth issue found that the raftman was gone. Only the razor remained, thinking, 'Once forgotten, we are perfect.'