Kristi

from Uncle Albert's notebook (cahier)

New Year's Eve!

"Will you stay up till midnight?" Nils asked."
        "UTC," I said.
        "Then you'll be in bed by seven?"
        "I may stay up until two, even three. . . . UTC."

A little before nine, the door bell rings, then knocking.
        "She's eager to get in," I said.
        "She is not one that believes that 'patience is a virtue,'" Nils said, already on his way to the door.
        A bustle over my left shoulder - I can't turn far enough to see. Then they are in front of me.
        "Uncle Albert," Nils said though I am not (his uncle). "This is Kristi. Kristi, this is Albert." We said hello. A tall, angular woman in faded jeans and colorless sweater; blond hair going gray, blue eyes also going gray. She could be Swedish. She tries to smile, but she is nonplussed because she doesn't know what to do with her hands. She says hello again and reaches out with her right.

"Let's get some snacks," Nils says and heads her toward the kitchen. At the dining room door, he turns. "Be right back," he says.

She's not Swedish but Swiss. Her family name is Zoss. And what does she do?
        She's a teacher, she says. 

Later Nils will explain: of Western Religions at the University across the mountain in Seeville. But she lives most of the time in a homeless camp on this side in Wayside. None of this makes sense to me, given her impatience, so I find myself wondering how much is true. 

I think that most of it must be, but all of it can't be, because that is the usual state of affairs.
        One of the questions that haunts me in my advancing age has to do with how much truth has to do with what is and how much with what we want to believe. Then, how much can "fact" argue with belief? Beyond that, how is belief established (in us)? And who decides what is fact and on what basis? (Usually on the basis of what who believes in my experience.)
        "Haunt" is the wrong verb. It's closer to "niggles at." The question flew over after I got into bed last night, I could hear it. But it was well above the house, it soon passed over. It didn't keep me awake.
                                           01/01/24
_______________
Addendum: The difference between hypothesis and theory is the first requires testing, the second has been tested and generally approved. But that doesn't mean that it can't still be tested, does it? When it enters the realm of no longer to be tested, it becomes myth.