Cliffhanger: The tiger and the strawberry

A story to tell…

Virginia: How was the birthday party?

Bertrand: Fun. Jeremy brought me a picture of a tiger and Bianca a box of premium strawberries. 

Virginia: A tiger and strawberries?

Bertrand: It was kind of a coincidence. You probably know this “cliffhanger” story:

One day while walking through the wilderness a man stumbled upon a hungry tiger. He ran but soon came to the edge of a high cliff. Desperate to save himself, he climbed down a vine and dangled over the fatal precipice. As he hung there, two mice appeared from a hole in the cliff and began gnawing on the vine. Suddenly, he noticed on the vine a plump wild strawberry. He plucked it and popped it in his mouth. It was incredibly delicious!
Virginia: Sounds an epiphanic tale. What is the message?

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Voice-over

A different telling of the story is in Mahabharata. Message is either Enjoy Present Moment or Only Fools Get Distracted By Transient Pleasures.

There is a Zen Koan version too. Being a Koan it posits a paradoxical question which is very difficult to answer.

Challenging reality: Leandro Erlich

The ghosts are us...

At the exhibition…

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Jorge: In school? Hmm. Our images projected into a deserted classroom. Nothing is what it seems, it would seem.

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Jean-Paul: Smokey mirrors. We know it is an image.

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A virtual boat ride?

Jorge: But he is using this as a catalyst to ask the question, “Is there more than one reality?”

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Jean-Paul: A clever optical illusionist. I give him that.

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Jorge: And it sets us questioning what is real.

Letting go...

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Voice-over

Are there multiple realities? Parallel worlds? Or only one?

Borges declared that “Reality is not always probable, or likely.”

Yet some philosophers argue that everyone sees the same things. An extreme form of this opposing view is Sartre saying, “Things are entirely what they appear to be and behind them...there is nothing” (Nausea, 1938).

Leandro Erlich Exhibition Seeing and Believing at Mori Art Museum.

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