A true story

It was 2000, I was attending Texas Tech University at that time, still an undergrad. I lived in a dorm room back then, I shared a bathroom with someone else. I would say it was a very typical college student's life, until...

I remember going down to the cafeteria for dinner, my usual posse was there. I greeted them, while I was getting ready to eat, I noticed a student I have not seen before. He was a dark-skinned, short guy with rather interesting eyes. My friends introduced me to him, he told me his name (which, by the way, I do not remember anymore). I asked him what major he was in, he said he was learning English there. We talked a bit more, he was from Saudi Arabia. Then he told me he was taking flying lessons at Lubbock International Airport (they called it "International", because they had a single flight to Mexico back then). I honestly thought it was a bit strange that an ESL student from Saudi Arabia would want to take a flying class in the middle of nowhere. I asked him what he was going to be in the future, he told me he wanted to fly planes and be a pilot back in his country.

It's been years since these happened, now I ask myself... Was he so unlucky as to be a Saudi Arabian student truly trying to learn how to fly just before 9/11, or was he a part of the plot? Was he a back-up, perhaps, in the greater scheme of things? Were any red flags raised after 9/11? I guess I'll never know.... Or perhaps he is already a pilot in Saudi Arabia and will reply to this post, surprising all of us - after all, never say never, they always say.

A Koan

Some time in the 20th century, a Shaolin master died in his bed somewhere in southern China. After he died, he went to the other world and was told to wait in line by some angels. He waited, waited, and waited. After some long hours, God invited him to a chamber and spoke to him:

“Shaolin master! I am the God written in the Old and New Testaments, all powerful and all knowing! I decide who goes to heaven and who does not. You have spent all your life worshipping false Gods, why should I let you into the heaven? Will you repent? NOW SPEAK!”

Shaolin master, calm and composed, looked at God and said, “You said you were all knowing, I have a question to you, God. I want to know if the following sentence is true or not: You will never tell me that this sentence I am telling you right now is true.”

“So, what do you think, God, what is the answer?”

God thought about this question for a while and said to himself, “Goddamnit! I have no idea!!! I was asked if I could create a rock I was not able to lift before, but I had a perfectly logical explanation for that. But this question, who the hell knows? If I say that the sentence is false, then the sentence will actually be true since I will not have told him that the sentence was true. But if I say the sentence is true, the sentence itself becomes false since I told him that the sentence is true; thus I will be wrong by saying the sentence was true.”

God thought about this question for hours and hours, but could not come up with an answer. He was perplexed, indeed. At last, he spoke upon the Shaolin master:

“I give up! I do not know what the answer is, I cannot say it is true, and yet I cannot say it is false. What is the answer?”

Shaolin master said, “The sentence is true, but you will never be able to reach that answer.”

God said, “But, I don’t understand. What does this all mean?”

The master stood still, and slowly gazed upon God. He said, “Godel and God are ONE.”

Upon hearing this, God was enlightened. He let the Shaolin master into the heaven, and they never spoke again.