Aaron Hull, or Aaron M. Hull, or A.M. Hull or whatever sequence of initials and surnames this loose collection of water, proteins and sundry other elements and organic compounds (or apparent consciousness housed therein) decides to call itself, chose to live in a reality where many other loose collections of water and proteins hypothesized about the possibility of alternate realities. He, since this aqueous non-solution chose to live in a reality in which its odd number of dangling appendages entitled “him” to a rather easy time of it compared to those with an even number, found this idea of a choice in one’s reality intriguing and decided to take this theory to its logical end.

Obviously if four billion years ago nothing banged or binged the slightest bit differently, DNA may not even have been a viable option for life to take. So the big bang, universe and subsequent appearance of a blue-green planet orbiting a class G2 yellow star roughly once for every 365 rotations on it’s 23.5° tilted axis pretty much had to happen for him to be a possibility. Life began on Earth (as this planet was called in the reality he chose to inhabit) at the proto-cellular level growing larger and larger over the eons before settling on a size where his particular DNA would be larger than most other species with a desire to eat him. There were a near infinite number of realities in which dinosaurs, cetaceans, and life forms inconceivable to his reality became or remained the dominant species on the planet.  He instead chose one where climatic changes or catastrophae wiped out the dinosaurs (scientists in his reality could make educated guesses, but were uncertain), cetaceans were content to jump through rings of fire and balance balls on their noses for the occasional tuna, and the inconceivable life forms never conceived one way or the other, although he speculated that strange phenomena such as Bigfoot or the Chupacabra could be shadows of such creatures cast on his reality.

He, as he knew himself to be, depended upon two strands of alternating nucleotides with the seemingly chance pairing of an X and Y chromosome. This was immutable. Every other chain of factors that could result in this fragile string of proteins represented a reality he could choose to exist in (whether he knew it or not). So of course he forewent the reality where he was born as a slave picking potatoes in Germany at the hands of a dominant Incan empire (they had discovered biochemistry and energy beam weapons long before the Europeans landed with smallpox and muskets). He decided against the reality where Tanzania already had a colony on Mars. And he wanted no part of the reality where the members of Eisenhower’s cabinet that supported the nuclear annihilation of the Soviet Union before Mutually Assured Destruction become a factor, won their argument (His mother was a warlordess in post-apocalyptic Tacoma and his father was a male concubine who was one of the few remaining nonsterile males after the fallout). No, he chose to live in a reality where the country he was a citizen of had the dominant economy and military in the world. He also belonged to the dominant race of this country which afforded him any number of employment options but absolutely no sexual credibility (which was a pity since he thought that’s what he thought he wanted more than anything).

He chose to be born in a reality where his family was neither rich nor poor but wedged comfortably into a middle class existence made even more comfortable by his parents’ frugalness. In fact, he never wanted physically for anything and his family was always uninterestingly supportive. As with most members of the dominant primate species, even with a lack of suffering he struggled to find constant sources of conflict. For him, that meant his family introduced him at an early age to fundamental dispensationalism, a branch of Christianity with puritanical sympathies and the intensely cerebral approach of dissecting every word in a book written largely by other males about a male with loads of pagan imagery compiled by a highly pagan Roman emperor at the Council of Nicea. The cerebral approach spoke to him; however he always found the worldview rather narrow. The philosophies of Agnosticism, Zen Buddhism and Taoism (two of which were erroneously labeled as religions in his reality) worked for him. He has long been interested in the creative arts, but usually finds some way to marginalize himself. He chose to be a classicly trained musician, but decided to play euphonium. This meant that he’d have to become really damn good for fellow classicly trained musicians to take him seriously and leave most people, trained or not, wondering what a euphonium was. After a degree in music he chose to pursue poetry, but decided to concentrate on form. This meant that academia, where this sort of poetry is still vaguely popular, would discount him because of his lack of formal education and more populist poets would scoff at his bourgeois pandering unless, again, he became damn good at it.

 

In this reality, he is a member of the Columbine Poets of Colorado (NFSPS) and SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). He reads at the Open Mic at the Mercury Café in Denver most Fridays. If you share his reality feel free to see him in person and tell him how beautiful or miserable you feel he has made this reality.

 

In this reality, his interests include Aikido, Yoga and various forms of eastern and western meditation.

 

In the reality he has chosen, he recommends the following artists:

 

Douglas Adams (The greatest social satirist of this reality’s 20^th Century with the possible exception of Gary Larson)

 

Glenn Gould or Nathan Milstein playing Bach

 

Jascha Heifetz playing whatever he damn well pleases

 

Robert Anton Wilson (Freethinker Extraordinaire)

 

William Arrowsmith translations

 

Peter Schaffer plays and movies

 

Charlie Kaufman movies

 

Alan Moore graphic novels

 

ee cummings poetry

 

William Butler Yeats poetry

 

Bela Bartok music