Equivocality

We made the world. Humans did. We abandoned the wilderness, left the forest or the savannah or whatever it used to be– I don’t even know. I can recognize more types of shoes than trees. There is another ecosystem now, of man-made things.

I began to realize this when I flew overseas. I found myself in a brand new jungle, with Moorish walled compounds sprouting from the ground and entirely new species of cars. For a month I rented a room in the seaside town of Taghazout, Morocco. It had a small sink in one corner, and opened onto the central courtyard of the second story. By day, light came from the sky. By night, fluorescent tubes cast muddy shadows on the faces of my hosts. And every door in town was blue.

No one could tell me why the doors were blue; the doors were invisible to the Moroccans, just there, just doors. After an hour walking through town and puzzling, I realized I was blind: I didn’t know what color the doors were at home.