defibulator

bigger is scarier

you can read Jorge Luis Borges' 1975 short story "The Book of Sand" online at this address: http://artificeeternity.com/bookofsand/complete.htm

no worries, it's really short. ;)

a bible salesman gives the protagonist a mysterious book he traded for a bible from an "illiterate hindu". the book has no begginning nor end and you can't find the same page twice. he tries to keep a list of llustrations but finds the page numbers are never in order and never repeat. he tries to flip back to the beginning but there's always a new page and you can never get back.

the book in the story is intended (we can surmise) as a foil for the nice, predictable scripture we like to think we have. full of comfort and answers, it never wrinkles our brow. right?

or is god's truth often a little more like the shifting book of sand? challenging, unexpected? disturbingly larger than our full understanding? and when so, isn't it easy to do with it what the protagonist does at the end of the story?