SERIOUS GRAVITY (A SANITY PRIMER)

  After falling asleep in his usual spot - ensconced underneath the juniper bushes near the steps opposite the library window on the south side, they brought old man Edgecomb back to the facility somewhat kicking and screaming. Eventually he calmed down. (Such forays to his favorite former place of higher learning were not entirely unusual.)  At the "positivity session" the next day he was adamant - I want it known that I have opinions - yes,  many many opinions - strong opinions - some might say harsh  opinions - yes, some of them, blunt,  old-fashioned, hard-wired, convictions that some of you would not like - if you heard me utter them out loud (ha, ha) - and i have learned over the course of many decades to bury those opinions, to keep them carefully wrapped up and held close to the vest,  to censure and self-edit myself as a survival strategy.... but now - just when i am at an age where i figure - hey why not - it's time to share these opinions wily-ni...

  At the Tuesday "positivity meeting" in the evening at the facility where the patients gather weekly in the dolphin room and Dr. Cressgold and Nurse Amanda pass the microphone to whomever wants to share with the group, the elderly Synderman (real name Przywara) was on a tear trying to explain his view of this, our perfectly just and orderly universe, based upon his understanding of infinite numbers of angelic intelligences working behind the scenes, rushing to and fro, working like dogs - as he never tired of saying, invisible, undetected, like so many clicking wheels or crickets chirping at some higher frequency, appearing and disappearing into momentary crevices in the space-time vortex - at various coordinates across the known universe, tweaking and repairing, calibrating and adjusting relations among entities so as to - in his words - "keep everything in balance..." These "friends" of ours - unbeknownst to us - are laboring tirelessly on our behalf - ...