h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For the past few days, the front page link to this story actually didn't get here but went instead to an earlier entry. All fixed now though, thanks to the kind folks of UG who took my admonishments in the courteous stride for which they are famous.

And I'm happy to say it was worth waiting for. A delightful romp and play based on the difference of one letter between wife and life that kept me interested long enough to read the whole thing while all the while wondering what else could happen. That kind of extension of interest is hard to find in these days of txt spk and writers who have been forced to believe in the maxim of 25 words or less and the false dogma that "brevity equals wit".

And I must also confess the piece engaged my imagination in a way that will have me thinking all day if there are any other possible plays on this theme that might have been overlooked. That kind of intellectual stimulation is rare indeed. Now of course I don't promise I'll be able to come up with anything new to add - we are after all dealing with how just one letter differentiates just two words - but I'll give it a shot.

Hmm... strife, knife, rifle...hmmmm...this is gonna be tough...

Thank you,
~jwf~

Thanks for the kind words jwf.

Although the two words sound the same my thought pattern went something like this…

A marriage contract says that wife is for life.
Therefore life is wife
For a married man the meaning of life becomes closely related to the meaning of wife.
So finding an answer to the meaning of wife brings us closer to the answer to the meaning of life.

How can that be?
Well the Grand design theory says that nothing is left to chance, there is a reason for everything and hence everything is planned. Therefore wife is not a casual affair someone decided which wife was suited for you. Hence if you manage to workout the meaning of wife then you can work out why she was assigned to you and hence understand yourself better.

What is the meaning of Husband, I hear you say…
Well generally speaking Husband has no meaning and that’s in his own home therefore given the immense size of the universe the meaning of Husband becomes very insignificant.

I would say that rather than a universal meaning husband has more of a local meaning.