Where the world is thin

Where the world is thin is a song by Kris Drever.

Squeezing words into a tune, his voice begs forgiveness for overly tight phrasing and he's forgiven, always forgiven.

But the song is not the point.

The thinness is the point.

I recognise it before the singing starts. I know it, although it's not a where. It's a when, a moment in time where the world becomes thin enough to see through.

When the world is thin, reality recedes. It fades away like the last bars of a song, remembered but drowned out by a silence that we know won't last, but for the moment is everything.

When the world is thin every thought is possible.

There is nothing of the day-to-day thinking to get in the way of thinking. One thought grows to fill the silence. Many thoughts race through the emptiness, never stopping long enough to be fully understood. All thoughts are free to be.

When the world thickens again, possibility is lost to reaction. The weight pushes us along and freedom of thought has to wait until the world is thin again.