25

In the moment before the bowler rolls

There is a great mystery:

Silent, unmarked and without score,

He stands alone before innumerable possible outcomes.

He finally got the venue he wanted:

Empty lanes in which to perfect the cycle.

This provident vacancy is like some rich and mysterious mother.

I do not know its handle, so I call it Dude.

I do not give a shit about the fucking rules,

So I wait and see what happens.

Yeah, well, you know, it’s just like, uh, my opinion, man,

But it’s fucking far-out,

Some kind of eager thing

Which lubricates the balls and the lanes,

Warshes away the darkness,

And returns the ball to the ball-return.

It really ties the world together.

It helps us fit right in there.

People forget that the brain is the biggest erogenous zone,

Bigger than even the biggest Lebowski.

The player follows the bylaws of the league,

The league follows the way of what-have-you,

What-have-you follows the way of the world,

The world follows the way of the Dude,

And the Dude follows the way of the limber mind.

There are four more detectives working on the case,

They got us working in shifts.

Tao Te Ching: 25

There is something completely nebulous

That predated the world.

Tranquil, formless and solitary,

It persists as it provides,

Like some vast cosmic mother.

I can’t compartmentalize it,
So I just refer to it as “Tao.”

However, if I were forced to try to describe it,

I might call it great, all-pervasive, and far-reaching,

Something which comes from the origin of all things,

Penetrates everything,

And returns to the origin of all things.

It is the force of greatness which makes all great things greater:

Nature, the universe, earth, and leaders of men.

People often forget that there are entities greater than their leaders:

While leaders follow the laws of humanity,

Humanity follows the laws of the world,

The world follows the laws of nature,

Nature follows the laws of Tao,

And Tao follows itself.

Everything follows from this.