Sorry to bother you, but I had to tell somebody about this.

O. Soid Norf came over last night and explained almost everything.  All I really wanted to know was whether I needed to replace the broken start switch in my dryer or if I could permanently connect the two wires, but he likes to talk.  He is also the wisest person I know, and I have great admiration and respect for him.  Another possibility is that he is completely insane, but that would mean I've wasted my time writing all of this down so I won't consider it.

Anyway he started at the beginning.  I'll repeat his story the best I can, but it may not hold the same significance for you as it did for me.

In the beginning the creator wasn't bored, but after an eternity of being all alone he was on his way to being that way.  This is why he invented time. (I didn't understand that point, but I try not to ask questions or he'll never stop talking, and I still held out some hope that he'd get to my dryer.)  Time does not combat boredom.  Time isn't the best way to measure boredom, but it works okay. 

Soid said that is another misconception about the creator.  He doesn't create perfection.  He just makes things good enough.  Most modern religions contain the idea of an omnipotent and perfect god.  He explained that when you're dealing with primitive peoples who are in awe of the sun and moon and seasons, you need a hook.  Hearing that cleared up quite a few mysteries for me.

Sometime later he created everything else.  Now there existed all of space and time, past, present and future, and everything in it.  But like the box of "sea monkeys" you can order from the back of a comic book, which are really nothing more than brine shrimp, the real thing wasn't as interesting as he had hoped.  It was like knowing all the rules of chess, and having a record of all the moves of every chess game ever played.  It still doesn't add up to the experience of playing just one game. The musical recording exists, but the music doesn't become real until the recording is played and the music experienced.

Being the only consciousness in the universe and quickly gaining an understanding of the depth of his boredom, the creator decided to experience a part of his creation through the human and other animal life he had created; actually play a game of chess, so to speak. 

He had included provisions for a range of limited consciousness, some even capable of a degree of comprehension of the existence of themselves, their creator, and of creation. (Soid explained: A full understanding is not possible.  An actor in a play may appear to be aware of the character, but the character is never aware of the actor.  It didn't clear anything up for me either.  Sorry I mentioned it.)  It was intended as nothing more than an absurd private joke originally.  Boredom leads to strange behavior, but soon the possibilities became apparent. 

The creator knew that the qualities of his experience of the world would be dictated by the nature of the organisms he experienced it through.  At first he had a few favorite lives that he experienced over and over, but like listening to the same music endlessly, after time even those became boring.  Eternity is a long time.  It was a combination of having all that spare time, and extreme boredom that led him to try every life at least once.  I think that may explain the feeling of Deja Vu, although I have never experienced it.  Mine must not be one of his favorite lives.

Soid said it was important to understand the significance of all consciousness; that it is the consciousness of the creator, and when a living creature's life reaches its end, it's not done and gone.  Eventually it will be replayed.  The next universe will surely be different.  Just as surely it will be improved with lessons learned in this one, even from the experiences of you and me.

It was getting late and Soid said he had an appointment with a xylophonist to keep, so we said goodbye.  I may not have understood everything Soid told me, and I may have gotten parts of it wrong, but I think the answers to everything are in here somewhere. 

No one can understand it all, and it isn't important to.  Like Soid said; it's easy to look at a dog and know that he'll never understand quantum physics, or even the mechanics of a doorknob, but it's ego that keeps us from knowing the same about ourselves.

I still don't know what to do about the dryer, but I'll be careful about who I ask in the future.  Do you know the answer?  I've got to go now.  Talk to you later.