You Can't Wake, I Can't Sleep

Cassie: I want you to tell me!

Lawes: What?

Cassie: How to stop bad things happening.

Lawes: Doesn’t work, does it? That’s why you have to start eating again.

Cassie: … I fell in love.

Lawes: Ah, love. Why cut yourself when you can be in love?

Cassie: You think passing an exam will make me happy?

Lawes: Cassie, passing exams generally only makes life more complicated, but there’s lots of other stuff that makes things bearable, and you don’t even have to use a knife.

Cassie: … Like?

Lawes: Disco.

(Then they dance.)

*

I think about this scene pretty much every day of my life. I think it’s my favorite scene ever from a tv show or the one that’s resonated most deeply with me, anyway, because 1. it’s made me feel the most understood and 2. it’s brought me the most comfort. Also, I think it’s kind of the best summing up/illustration of (at least my interpretation of) Zen philosophy that I’ve ever seen in any form of media, and it kind of gets to the heart of the show in that through all of the horrible shit the characters go through, they always ultimately seem to find a way to enjoy life and each other and being in the moment (through being in the moment?)

"You see, everything we see around us we assume is reality. But Jade, there is no fixed reality. All you have in your hand is a bunch of atoms. It's no more solid than the air. If you could look inside your body with a big enough microscope you'd just see atoms, atoms swimming around in a vast space, an inner universe - ninety-nine percent of the human body is empty space. Everyone and everything in the world is made up of the same energies flowing between us all. For instance, our thoughts and feelings - the things we think aren't 'real' because we can't touch them - they're as real as that drink in your hand. Can you see the radio waves that bring you the sounds of radio?"

"No."

"Maybe your system is picking up thoughts and energies that are swirling around you, maybe you're just tuned in to what is invisible to the rest of us. That doesn't mean, though, that it isn't real, that it doesn't exist."

*

"But I can see the future," I say.

"On the subatomic level, Jade, there is no linear time. Everything happens simultaneously. We humans make linear time. So you aren't seeing the future. You're seeing the moment, the moment we all live in, where past, present, and future all live together. Eternity, for lack of another word. And Jade, I know you love science and math. Well, guess what? All these ideas I've just described to you are theories developed by quantum physicists."

*

"Maybe the physical world is just an illusion," I say, trying out Dr. Manuel's theory.

"Maybe," she says, "but it's all we've got."

~~ The Freak by Carol Matas.

(I've had this exact same conversation on multiple occasions and I always say exactly that...)

and thank you lit quotes community!