as his own knowledge the entire spectrum of this aspect of self-
importance. With it, he would see the incalculable losses his neglect,
disinterest, and utter lack of concern for anything other than himself had
created." She stared at me.
"I can see the benefit of getting a lot of information all at once."
"It‘s not a lot of information; it is a massive comprehension that
would fill volumes, if it didn‘t supersede language." She took a considered
breath. "The more comprehensive the exploration of your behaviour, the
more unimaginably comprehensive is the zipper you will have closed
around a massive data bank of indicators about everyone who uses the
same excuses and practises the same essential behaviours."
"No offence, but we‘ve been over all of this."
"And you have yet to incorporate its principles into your daily way of
life, so we‘re going over it again."
"Incorporate what?"
"Being cheap is one tug on a zipper of your behaviour. It is a sign of a
greater continuity in play, so when you understand its impact on all else
that you do you will have subdued an enormous amount of your
personality. In fact," she corrected herself, "as the core influence that
blinds you to seeing the rest of your harmful beliefs, it‘s probably the only
influence on your personality that we need to deal with. I think I
mentioned, the rest will fall like dominos without its support."
"What is it?"
"I told you, fear."
"And I told you, I‘m prudent because I can‘t pull twenty dollar bills
out of my ass."
A digression—
The moment I left the world of news video editing, where my days
passed in one-thirtieth of a second frames progressively compressed
against a six o‘clock deadline, I literally threw my watch away. It is for
this reason that I do not know precisely how long Bonnie howled in
laughter, indelicately sniffling back snot so that she could gulp a decent
breath, only to continue choking to the brink of asphyxia. As a measure of
sorts, her attempts to regain a modicum of dignity reached five before she
managed to slurp her mirth into submission and say, "That‘s why it‘s
called the Minimal Chance."
_____Belief and Conviction____
