"Whoz-at down there?"
"Red Eft, here! Pronouns: they/them, honorific: newt*. You don't mind if I keep moving while we talk, do ya?"
"Nice to see you -ahh- Neww-t. Never used 'Newt' as an honorific. This is a first for me. And, I enjoy when I do something for the first time and can recognize itz a novel experience thatz happening to me. Gonna take some time to familiarize myself with how it feelz-n-such. I'm pleased you called out to me, though ... Neww-t ... 'cause I didn't see you at first."
"First time for you! Nice. So, before now, what did you say to someone new-to-you, who was not displaying visually identifiable colors or shapes or smells or sounds and such in order to communicate their gender?"
"Well, ahh, we, ahh, I ... would choose not use any honorific until I knew if they were a 'sir' or a 'ma'am' or a 'doctor' or a 'yer highness' or a 'your majesty'... Neww-t."
"I see! It sounds very-much-as-if you are normally perceived as impolite or rude, by most of the world. That doesn't bother you?"
"Oh. Well. I don't know if thatz accurate, I mean..."
"Is this another first-time for you? I am so happy to have afforded you the opportunity to have two firsts inside of such a brief time! You looked down and then asked me, 'who is that down there' and clearly—you were unaware that it sounded brisk and unfriendly. Polite and friendly would have been to ask 'who is that down there, newt'. If I were displaying my dark greens then you would have been correct to ask me 'who is that down there, sir' and if I chose to display my yellows then you would have been correct to ask me 'who is that down there, ma'am'. Oh! I'm not communicating something clearly, am I, mister? Because you have chosen to display the nonverbal expression that can only be described as befuddled."
"Red. Neww-t. I am sorry. You are speaking clearly. Thatz also the face I make when I am processing new-to-me information. I process slowly. I'm older."
"Well I can see you are older just by looking at your size—you are so much older than me! But, if I may give you a tiny bit of advice? You, sir, pronounce the gender neutral honorific like a clumsy. I just heard you use it's un-abbreviated form: new-to-me, which—when shortened—is newt. You drop the word 'to' in the middle. After the 't' and before the 'o'? Most of the time it sounds like you are calling me a Newt. Also rudeness. Like—as if—I were to call you 'human' instead of 'sir'. Very different. You see?"
"You have been very helpful, newt. I do have a question about your orange color. Respectfully. I was informed that itz a 'poisonous to eat' warning. Zat true?"
"I do not know the answer to your question, mister, and, I've never heard about it from any others of my species. Why do you ask? Are you hungry?"
"No, Red. Just curious to know if what I was once told or read was a truth. If it was actually a fact or if—like almost everything in the world that I've not personally experienced—it was just another fabricated belief, passed down from some long-dead doctor-scientist to another ignorant old human. Like my Self. I'm working on getting rid of concepts, assumptions, suspicions, and beliefs that I have no actual experience with, and which I have not personally verified the veracity of."
"But. If I said that I was, or was-not, poisonous - and related a story which, in my mind, would confirm or deny it—you still would not have actually verified it yourself. Right? You would need to eat me to change your as-yet-not-verified belief into a personally-known truth?"
"Yes, newt-Red. That is correct."
"And if your previous belief turned out to be true, you might die smarter!"
"You, dearest newt, are missing the point in its glorious entirety! And—finally—I can share something new-to-you: I have just come to realize, while talking with you, that the foundational bedrock of the reason to rid myself of all the brain clutter and non-mandatory mental stuff, which I don't really know to be true (because I've never personally experienced it), is because itz better to accept that I do not know something—like your poisonous or nonpoisonous nature—than to continue to blindly accept what I've been informed about the all-of-everything for my entire life!
I can, now, welcome never being uncomfortable with the continuous urge to know. Or, to put it in a positive manner: I am comfortable (and will go on being comfortable) only accepting that I know only the very, very, few truths which I have experienced first-hand. Everything else is hearsay. Everything else has no bearing on my actual core being.
My central Being is not connected to awareness of anything based on assumptions or beliefs or superstitions or even actual facts (which I've yet to experience with my own senses).
My human Self, on the other hand, is a 'metaphorically-separate' mental entity. It is responsible for keeping me safe and alive. It BELIEVES you are poisonous to the touch and could make me die if I ate you. So, I let my Self decide not to touch you, and I keep on living.
My Being has no desire to touch you, newt Red Eft, because it is comfortable not knowing. Happy not knowing. Content not knowing. Voluntarily not knowing. Intentionally not knowing. And not because moving one more little tiny piece of information from my personal 'belief column' to my 'true-knowledge' column would cause you harm. But because Not Knowing is Being."
*Editor note: Pronouncing the gender-neutral honorific - newt - sounds like saying 'nude' without drawing-out the word. Pronouncing the species name - Newt - draws out the vowel and lands-hard on the T.
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