There’s a story from my childhood that has become a core part of my belief system, even though it took a while for my body to catch up. Jing Di Zhi Wa (井底之蛙), translated into The Frog at the Bottom of the Well, is about a frog at the bottom of a well. It’s very literal, no abstract deep meaning. The lesson is in what the frog sees when they look up. We the reader know there is much more to the world than a pinhole of blue sky, depending on how deep the well goes. But of course, the frog doesn’t.

I’ve seen this pattern repeat itself outside of Chinese folklore, in science, the pursuit of travel and wonder, in books and platitudes (walk in someone else’s shoes), and in algorithms. We are all frogs, or shadows, or chickens, or ourselves a generation ago. There’s something beautiful about seeing the sky so tiny, and seeing it so big, seeing us in it, and seeing it in a dot. All of these are real. I’ve been finding myself questioning the meaning of reality as technology blurs the lines, makes not-so-real not so bad. But when I consider that everything is real because there are many versions of it, it helps to know there is always something more than what we can see right now. And sometimes you need a bit of friction, a change in perspective (or scale), or a new smell, taste, colour to take you there.

I guess this is what you’d call my version of an origin story.