(written on the occasion
of the First ZUSAS Staff
Research Colloquium,
January 15, 1998)
There's something quite like wearing a hat.
It can be compared with where you have sat.
Remember when you were at school,
And changing your seat was really cool?
From that new but ordinary place,
You actually changed your mental space.
To see the teacher and all goings on . . .
Well, at least for a while it staved off a yawn!
Hats come in all shapes and all sizes.
Some are even invisible, one realizes:
Have you ever seen a thinking cap?
Your teacher said, "Put it on!" after a loud clap.
Yes, in sizes and colors galore.
Some hats make you look from days of yore.
But some hats are mere functional,
Can make non-Germans downright punctual.
Others let you be whoever you would.
Some we call not hat but a hood.
Some sinister ones help you to hide,
And make you good though you have lied.
While some of these help you be hid.
Others make you look as if with a lid.
With some you can play sports and run.
Some to be seen in is just plain fun.
All in all hats do a trick.
They are as magicians,
And in a flick,
From candles come flowers,
Which turn into,
You guessed it, bowers.
It is abundant ideas here we are after,
Sparked by altered states, like laughter.
Your hat this occasion, silly or serious,
Will take you, scholar, beyond the mere curious.
Putting one on will change your view,
From who you were to someone new.
Realities beyond what is normal and is.
You can even change from a her to a his.
Consider for a moment if but brief,
How becoming another might be a relief!
So come with your head, and your hat.
Even if an invisible thinking cap.
(It's a small thing to ask.
And represents a wee task.)
And let yourself go.
To other worlds you would know.
There's nothing quite like wearing a hat
To alter the ordinary thises and that.
