Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More
GoFundMe

This Is What It All Comes Down To

Cowboy Cottage Cattle Pasture, East Napa, California, USA

October 1, 2025


"God only creates what is."
... 
"Transformation is simple but it's not easy."
... 
"what is is what is not is not is that it it is"
... Laurence Platt recreating    (unpunctuated)
"What is, is. What is not, is not. Is that it? It is!"
... Laurence Platt recreating    (punctuated)
"42."
... Douglas Adams embodying Arthur Dent answering the question "What is the meaning of life?" in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


Life. It's everything that's out-here. It's everything we interact with all the time. So why is it here? Why are we  here? What's the point of it all? What's the reason? The answers to these questions are maddeningly elusive. They must  be really difficult. They must be complex. They couldn't possibly  be simple?

Actually the answers to those questions (and many related ones) are  simple. Indeed simple ... but not necessarily easy. This is what it all comes down to: what is, is; what is not, is not. That's it. That's all. There's nothing else. There's nothing more. You got it. You may not like  it. But you did get it. Whatever other answers you may come up with, whatever other explanations you may vote for, you only approve or vote for because you can't be with / tolerate the searing in-your-face-ness of what is is, what is not is not. We're thrown  to it's gotta be complex. If it starts to look really simple, we reject it out of hand.

It's almost too  obvious to hear. What? You were expecting something else? You were expecting something other than that? You were expecting something more? I'm sorry, but this is it. This is all. What is, is. What is not, is not. There's no secret to it. It just is. There's no relief from it. It just is. There's nothing else. It just is. There's no respite from it. It just is. There's no saving grace in it. It just is. And if there's any meaning  to it at all, it's the meaning you add on to it, not any meaning it comes with ie not any meaning it's endowed with, not any meaning that's built in to it ie intrinsic to it (and stop lying about it).

It's so blindingly obvious that the simplicity of it can't possibly be acceptable. It can't  be so simple. No, there's got  to be something more, there's got to be something else. And when we can't find something more, something else, we start looking for something to apply it to, what we can use it for, how we can profit from it, what's the best way to leverage it to our advantage. Or we revert to the great inquiry which seems to have a traction all of its own when the simplicity of it all can not possibly be enough (there's no way  it can be enough ...): we lean harder into what the meaning of it all is. And when there's no obvious answer to that  inquiry, somehow being in the question of it, adds a certain nobility, a certain excuse, a certain justification, a nice, warm feeling.

But no answer is forthcoming because there is no answer. When no answer is forthcoming to the questions we ask, we assume there must be an answer somewhere, but it's elusive. And to us, that would suggest we should keep looking for it. Oddly, the smart, obvious conclusion is: we can't come up with an answer because there is no answer. It just is. Without any reason. Without "Why?". Without any meaning. Without any secret. Without any hidden agenda. We're thrown that questions without answers because there are no answers  (not because there are answers we've yet to find) don't fit into our categories.

So this is what it all comes down to: what is, is; what is not, is not. I suggest we consider, not what keeps us stuck is not being able to understand it, or not being able to come up with explanations for it or answers to it, but rather what keeps us stuck is our inability to simply be  with what is and with what is not. It's our insistence on adding meanings and explanations for the way things are and the way things are not, that gets in our way of just being  with things the way they are and the way they are not. I'm not asserting that's the truth (and it may be). Rather it's a great place from which to stand and look.


Communication Promise E-Mail | Home

© Laurence Platt - 2025 Permission