The Hole that Wasn't There!

It was clearly labeled.  You couldn’t miss it.  Someone had written “This is not a hole” with an arrow pointing to what can only reasonably be described as…. a hole.  It was round.  It went all the way through the metal, so it could not be mistaken for a depression, a dent, or anything else but an actual hole… Yet here was a label that was in essence saying “This is not here” and actually calling attention to what was not there with an arrow pointing directly at it.

If I had been in a more zen mood, I might have thought about all the deep philosophical discussions that could arise from such a strange occurrence.  As it was, I was simply a man with a drill…. and a connecting screw that belonged to a chassis who was now… after having been told to secure the chassis to the base plate by means of a screw, staring at a base plate with but one hole to place the screw in…. the hole that was clearly labeled as “not a hole”  It had threads… so it was obviously meant to have a screw in it at some point.

I turned to the person who had given me this task, thinking I was now the subject of some joke, but he gestured at the hole that wasn’t there and said “Yes, that one.”

“But it says it’s not a hole.” I replied.

“Is it?”

I was reluctant to answer.  My eyes narrowed.

“I see it.”

“Well there you go.”

“So the writing means nothing?”

“It probably did at some point.”

Other deep philosophical thoughts occurred to me, the idea that a hole could created that would not actually BE a hole until sometime in the future made my head hot.

Imagining the not-hole on the base plate as being the ear of the person who had set this task before me…. I squeezed the trigger on the drill.