A Carnival of Eternal Objects
The Official Visitor’s Guide to Pure Possibility
Welcome!
You have entered the Carnival of Eternal Objects, where admission is free, nothing is actual, and every attraction is waiting for somebody—or something—to embody it.
Please do not be alarmed by the name. Eternal objects are simply pure possibilities: colors, shapes, sounds, patterns, qualities, relationships, and other ways in which the world might become. They do not grow old, need repair, or complain about the weather. But they do need actual things in order to make an appearance.
Featured Attractions
The Tunnel of Colors
Redness, blueness, chartreuse, and several shades that have not yet found suitable paint. Please refrain from arguing about whether beige is really a color.
The Hall of Shapes
Circles, triangles, spirals, and polygons insisting that they are more interesting than they look. Circularity itself is not round, but management asks that you not press the point.
The Pavilion of Sounds
Melodies seeking musicians, chords awaiting resolution, and one musical interval that has been banned from three churches.
The Garden of Qualities
Beauty, tenderness, courage, elegance, humor, and awkwardness. Awkwardness remains one of our most frequently actualized attractions.
The House of Unactualized Possibilities
Everything that might have happened but did not. Please do not linger. Regret is available at a separate booth.
The Contrasts Tent
Colors, sounds, feelings, and ideas are brought together in striking combinations. Some become beautiful. Others become committee meetings.
The Divine Impresario
God serves as the carnival’s divine impresario, presenting possibilities to every creature according to its circumstances. God offers attractions but does not force anyone onto the rides.
The divine aim is toward richer forms of beauty, intensity, harmony, and adventure. Creatures remain free to ignore the invitation, choose a less promising attraction, or attempt something that looked much better in the brochure.
Management wishes to make clear that God is not responsible for every possibility creatures decide to actualize.
Carnival Rules
- All eternal objects must undergo ingression before appearing in actuality. No ticket is required.
- Combinations are encouraged.
- Contrasts should be intense but not destructive.
- Novelty is welcome, although results cannot be guaranteed.
- No actual entity may remain on the grounds permanently.
- Possibilities may be reused indefinitely.
- Eternal objects are not permitted to claim full credit for what actual creatures do with them.
- Please keep hands, feet, and metaphysical assumptions inside the ride at all times.
The Actualization Midway
Along the midway, visitors can watch possibilities becoming actual.
At the Garden Booth, green, yellow, fragrance, symmetry, and wild irregularity combine to become a flower.
At the Music Booth, rhythm, melody, memory, and surprise become a song.
At the Ethics Booth, fear, concern, imagination, and courage may become an act of kindness—although the outcome depends upon the participant.
At the Domestic Arts Booth, color, comfort, geometry, and inherited memory become a quilt.
At the Refreshment Stand, sweetness, warmth, cinnamon, and circularity become a cinnamon roll. This attraction is especially popular among metaphysicians.
Each actual thing is a temporary composition: many possibilities gathered into one concrete moment. The moment then passes, leaving fresh material for whatever comes next.
Before You Depart
Please remember that the Carnival of Eternal Objects is not located in a distant heaven of abstractions. It appears wherever possibilities enter the actual world—in paintings and gardens, jokes and equations, melodies and meals, acts of courage and moments of kindness.
Unfortunately, the Carnival also appears in tragedy, violence, cruelty, and despair. Eternal objects are possibilities, not moral guarantees. Some enter the world in beautiful combinations; others become ingredients in suffering and destruction. The metaphysical midway includes attractions no compassionate person would willingly visit.
Every moment selects from the Carnival. Every creature gives certain possibilities somewhere to appear. Every act of creativity invites a few eternal objects out of the metaphysical wings and onto the stage of actuality. So, regrettably, does every act of destruction.
You are therefore not merely visiting the Carnival. You are one of the places where the Carnival happens—and one of the participants who can help decide which attractions come to life.