Alan Watts
This Way That Way
[Chorus]
Really, deep down, we are – each one of us – everything that there is
Doing it this way, and then again that way, and then again another way
Doing it this way, and then again that way, and then again another way
Really, deep down, we are – each one of us – everything that there is
Doing it this way, and then again that way, and then again another way
And that’s what it keeps up doing for ever, and ever

Only, it has holidays
Which are called deaths
You know, in the story of the creation of the world, in the Bible
God works for seven days and rests the seventh
It’s necessary to have a holiday
Holiday is holy day
The point is – that a holiday – this pause between something going on—is of the essence of the idea of a web
There’s a famous Irishman who is supposed to have described a net as “a lot of holes tied together with string.”
So the holes are very, very important
And these are the holy days
You see? The holes
It all goes together

[Chorus]
Really, deep down, we are – each one of us – everything that there is
Doing it this way, and then again that way, and then again another way
Doing it this way, and then again that way, and then again another way
Really, deep down, we are – each one of us – everything that there is
Doing it this way, and then again that way, and then again another way
And that’s what it keeps up doing for ever, and ever
So there must be that interval, and it exists on all kinds of levels
It isn’t simply that there is for example, a sound that is sounded is a vibration, and the sound goes on and off
Everything that we call sound is sound-silence
There is no such thing as pure sound; you couldn’t hear it
What you hear is that “tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap” against the eardrum
But it happens very fast so that you get more of an impression of sound than you do of silence
But between every little undulation of sound there is also an interval

When you listen to music you hear a melody
When you listen to music you hear a melody
When you listen to music you hear a melody
When you listen to music you hear a melody
When you listen to music you hear a melody
When you listen to music you hear a melody

[Chorus]
Really, deep down, we are – each one of us – everything that there is
Doing it this way, and then again that way, and then again another way
Doing it this way, and then again that way, and then again another way
Really, deep down, we are – each one of us – everything that there is
Doing it this way, and then again that way, and then again another way
And that’s what it keeps up doing for ever, and ever

When you listen to music you hear a melody
When you listen to music you hear a melody
When you listen to music you hear a melody
When you listen to music you hear a melody
But what you hear, actually, that makes the melody significant
Are the steps between the tones; what we call the intervals
And a person who doesn’t hear intervals is tone-deaf
He only hears noises, he doesn’t hear the steps
So that interval between whatever happens is as important as what happens
So we’ll call these two things the sound and the silence
The life and the death
Somewhat analogous in weaving to the warp and the woof
Now look at the marvelous way in which the warp and woof go together
A piece of cloth is an extraordinary thing when you consider it’s made of a line of string
There’s something that always struck me as a child; fabulous, that string – just thread – could turn into cloth
Why should it hang together?
How improbable