You may stop reading at any point. You are reading words. If
you read all the words in this text, you will have read a number of words. That is
you choose to read all the words. Perhaps you would prefer to read only some of the words, say, every other word, or every third word, and so
forth. Or perhaps you would prefer to write your own text and tape it over this one, or to the side, or on your refrigerator. Do as you please. There
are an endless number of possibilities, and yet only a limited number of actual possibilities. One possibility is to stop reading. If you choose this
possibility, you might wonder if you will miss something. What are you afriad of missing? Will what you miss, miss you? Should you continue
reading? The word "should" implies that something is lacking or incomplete as it is. But can you be lacking or incomplete as you are? Is being
complete something, or nothing? Nothing is a crowded furniture store. Nothing is always in reference to something. A cup is empty compared to
containing something -- nails, air, green ink... You are about to read the words "hot chocolate". Are you still reading? Are you reading to learn
something about hot chocolate? What do you think of when you hear the words "hot chocolate?" Perhaps you think of a time in the pastwhen
you had hot chocolate. Perhaps you are drinking hot chocolate while reading this. If you are, does it make reading this a deeper, richer
experience? Perhabs you associate hot chocolate with preserving the jungle, or clouds of whipped cream dissolving into a pink sky above a blue
barn filled with the sweet smell of leather and saddle soap and the time you and your cousin praticed roping a wooden steer made out of a saw
horse and how your cousin was older than you but not old enough to drive, at least no legally, but who liked to talk, on those occasions he chose
to talk, about the type of pickup truck he hoped to buy when he was old enough to drive to, through and around places. Which brings us to the
issue of place. We are now at word ____ of the this text. Is that really a place? Could you, say, have dinner there? Or steal a smooch from
someone cute? Or find your way from this place to another place, a place somehow different from where you were? Does this talk of place annoy
you? Does this text annoy? Do you annoy yourself? What are you saying to yourself? Anyone reading this text, or reading it backwards, may stop
at any point, or continue, whichever you prefer. If all the letters in this text were converted into computer language, 0's and 1's, would it make
more sense? It has been said that every snowflake is unique: No two snowflakes are the same. Yet go outside with a spoon and scoop snowflakes
onto a cookie tray and bring the cookie tray back into your warm kitchen and they will turn into little drops of water. What was unique in the
solid state is formless and indisthinguishable as a liquid. When we say underwater, we mean under the surface of water. Otherwise we are in
water and not necessarily under it. The same is true of the word "underwear". It shares the prefix "under", making it a similar word, yet
different, which could be better or worse, depending on your preferences. We use verbs to describe the relationship between objects and time.
Without verbs, objects never get any time to themselves. The past tense of underwear, for example, might be "underworn", but this implies a
lack of use which is very different from descriping relative location of garments. What is the relative location between you are what you are
reading? This text is a composition of statements and questions. But at the same time, you have your own statements and questions. Are your
statements and questions in this text? Did you put them there or did they put you here. Aren't you also writing this text? We are now at word
____. You may stop writing at any point, or you may continue. Do as you wish. Perhabs someone just walked into the room you are in, or perhabs
they just left. In either case, are they missing anything? Their car keys perhabs? And if they found their car keys, where would they go? Perhabs
they would go to the dry cleaners. Is the dry cleaners a better place than the place you are at? And where are you? Someplace where other places
are not? Someplace wet and dirty? Which brings us to the most important point in this text. Did you feel a butterfly net pop out of your head
when you read "the most important point of this text"? What did you hope to capture in your sticky mentalmesh? If anyone is reading this upside
down, then let her do so. We are now reaching the end of the text. But what end is there to reach? We have now reached a word. The word
describes a number, and the number describes a possible sum of words. You are now reading _____.