Schrodinger’s Chapbook

Now, I know very little about science, but somehow, I know about Schrodinger’s cat.  For those who don’t, here’s the link to the Wikipedia page, and also I will try to explain the most basic principle of it in kindergarten language. 

Say you put a cat in a box with a substance that may or may not kill it, and seal the box.  Now, with the box sealed you don’t know if the cat is dead or alive.  It’s a thought experiment, like that one about the trains and whether to save one or 100 people.  It has something to do with quantum mechanics and again, I have no idea how this information got into my head.  Anyway…

Sahar was in town a couple weeks ago.  Seeing as how our favorite restaurant that we’ve been going to for 20 years just went vegan, and we are most definitely meat eaters, we have been on the hunt for a new spot.  This found us at Dog Ear Bookstore and Café.

I love that place.  I have been there many times over the years and have consumed a great many cups of chai tea with friends.  This is the place where I discovered the poetry readings that I used to go to…I do wish they would start those up again!

I ordered a delightful roast beef sandwich called the Charles Dickens and we settled into a table for some conversation.  There wasn’t much honestly because texting exists, so Sahar and I have managed to remain joined at the hip despite being a state apart.  So, we ate our sandwiches and lamented the passing of our old restaurant.

After eating, we went into the back, into the book shop, on a mission.  See, this is the shop where I dropped off a couple copies of my chapbook a few months ago.  Honestly, it’s not worth it to me monetarily to sell it in stores; I get the most cash from Amazon purchases, but it was important to me to get it into at least one shop so I could say I did it.  And of course I took it directly to Dog Ears.

We browsed.  I searched the poetry shelf; Sahar looked in local authors.  No book.

I was perplexed.  What does this mean?  One would assume, I suppose, that it sold out.  Yet, the proprietor told me he would call for more copies if that happene4d.  He has not called.  Still, I could not find the book.

So…if you put a chapbook in a bookstore, with people who could possibly purchase it or not, is the book dead or alive?

Now, had I backbone in that moment, I would have simply asked.  Flung open the lid of the box and found out if the cat was dead, so to speak.  But no, I’m chicken, so we left quietly and I wondered all day instead.  But now it’s weeks later, and I’m still thinking about it, because that’s the way my stupid brain works.

It knows very little about science, but it’s a pro at over-analyzing.

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