You Cannot Be Serious if You Cannot Be Wrong
If a time traveler got out of his time machine
Here and now
He’d surely say
“You cannot be serious”
Because serious people
Are those who take one very specific proposition
Very seriously:
I could be wrong
Our time traveler would then ask
“Is this somebody’s idea of a joke?”
Since the idea of total certainty
That undergirds our culture of total conflict
Is a joke that isn’t funny;
It’s unserious
Bidding us adieu
The time traveler leaves us
With a few parting words
As he punches the year 6000 into his Flux Capacitor:
“Sometimes life is seriously funny
But it’s always serious business
Unless I’m wrong about that
Which time will surely tell”
I take him to mean
It’s okay to be wrong–
We still have time
To learn from our mistakes
Though we mustn’t tarry
For 215 years will go by
In the blink of an eye
