Etched on the Universe

By Mike Johnson

Iconic invention, iconic toy. French electrician Andre Cassagnes invented “The Magic Screen” in 1950. The Ohio Art Company licensed it for America in 1960. The name was changed to Etch-a-Sketch. 150 million have been sold.

The toy lives on while Andre has been erased from the earthly screen. At least from our perception.

In reality, this representation of Andre returned to aluminum powder, the building block that coated the inner screens of every Etch-a-Sketch drawing ever made.

A closed system of pure potentiality.

In the universe of Etch-a-Sketch, Andre was the creator. Everyone who fixated on his universe had free will to draw whatever they liked.

Simple art, complex art. Beautiful art, profane art. Inspiring art, evil art.

Each work represented the fixation of a moment. A quick shake & onto the next.

No one was eternally judged by their drawings. It's just an Etch-a-Sketch. It's just play.

Shake & start anew.

Perhaps the fall of man is not a physical fall but a mental one.

One moment, we perceived ourselves as a united piece of all-there-is.

The next we fixated on an individual screen, two knobs & a specific drawing.

Only a human has the range of focus to go from perceiving infinity to perceiving “Monday.”

Perhaps our pain & pleasure & failure & success is not quite as important or permanent as we imagine.

Could enlightenment be as simple as giving ourselves a little shake?

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Explore this concept deeper at "Just You & Your Consciousness"

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