Category Error

Jane, a philosopher, had spent a sleepless night.
By morning she felt sure she had solved something fundamental about the nature of being.

She went to see Anna: a physicist who practices meditation.

They drank tea.

Jane spoke carefully.
She defined her terms.
She explicated and implicated.

Anna listened.

Before Jane’s culmination, Anna invited stillness.

“That is all very clever,” she said.
“You may well write celebrated papers.”

She sipped her tea.

“But honestly, I cannot take it very seriously. The answers and the questions are equally confused.”

Jane stiffened.

Anna smiled faintly.

“It’s all one big category error.”

Jane felt a flash of anger.
She breathed in, reaching for the depths of her being, hoping to find peace there.

Instead, she ejaculated:

“You’re a category error!”