July 23rd rolls around with the cosmic timing of a philosopher’s practical joke. While the rest of humanity is confidently wrong about everything, a small subset of reality-questioners pauses to celebrate the one thing we can be absolutely certain about. Maybe we shouldn’t be absolutely certain about anything.
This is Maybe Day. Robert Anton Wilson’s neurological gift to a species that treats its own opinions like divine revelation. Think of it as the moment when you realize your GPS has been confidently directing you to drive into a lake for the past twenty minutes. Except instead of your navigation system, it’s your entire belief structure that might be hilariously off-course.
Welcome to the one celebration that honours our collective cosmic cluelessness with the enthusiasm usually reserved for finding out your student loans have been forgiven or discovering your nemesis has been mispronouncing “epitome” their entire adult life.
The Prophet of Perhaps
Wilson gave us Maybe Day like a neurological gift basket. Part philosopher, part trickster, part cosmic jester, the man spent his career as a professional doubt-merchant, peddling uncertainty in a world drunk on its own convictions. He looked at our species’ breathtaking arrogance about knowing things and said, “Hold up there, chief. What if everything you believe is just your brain’s creative writing project?”
Maybe Day falls on July 23rd, which isn’t coincidental if you’re keeping track of Wilson’s numerological obsessions. Twenty-three appears throughout his work like a recurring dream you can’t quite shake. Part pattern, part pareidolia, part cosmic punchline. It’s the perfect date for celebrating doubt, because maybe it means something profound, or maybe it’s just Wilson trolling us from beyond the veil.
The Neurology of Know-It-Alls
Here’s what’s delightfully subversive about Maybe Day: it’s a holiday for your brain’s humility circuits. We all know someone who’s got it all figured out. Their neural networks are running belief.exe at maximum confidence levels, pumping out certainty like a factory that forgot to install quality control.
Wilson understood something most people miss. Belief is just software running on wet neural hardware. Your convictions about reality? They’re more like apps on a phone, and maybe it’s time for a system update. Maybe Day is like forcing a restart on humanity’s collective cognitive arrogance.
The beauty is in the liberation. Instead of lugging around the crushing weight of having all the answers, you get to float through existence with the delightful lightness of maybe. Maybe you’re wrong about everything. Maybe the universe is stranger than you can suppose. Maybe that’s fantastic news.
A Chapel Perilous for Everyone
Wilson had a concept called the “Chapel Perilous.” Picture that psychological liminal space where you’re suspended between paranoia and illumination, not sure if you’re going crazy or finally seeing clearly. Maybe Day is like democratizing that experience. Instead of stumbling into existential uncertainty alone, we all get to wade into productive confusion together.
Think of it as a holiday for intellectual humility in a world where everyone’s an expert after reading three tweets. It’s a celebration of the maybe-mind, that beautiful state where you’re curious rather than certain, playful rather than preachy, open rather than closed.
How to Celebrate (Maybe)
Maybe start sentences with “maybe.” Maybe question something you were absolutely sure about yesterday. Maybe realize that your reality tunnel is just one subway line through an infinite underground system of possibilities.
Maybe read something that confuses you on purpose. Maybe consider that your enemies might have a point. Maybe remember the universe contains multitudes, and you’re just one consciousness-app running on a meat computer, trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
Maybe that’s enough. Maybe it’s everything.
The Cosmic Joke
The ultimate joke about Maybe Day is that maybe it doesn’t matter at all. Maybe Wilson was just messing with us. Maybe celebrating uncertainty is like throwing a party for the concept of not knowing where you put your keys.
Or maybe that’s the point. Maybe a little doubt is precisely what this certainty-obsessed world needs. Maybe questioning everything is the most radical act available in an age where people form unshakeable opinions about movies they haven’t seen based on trailers they half-watched while scrolling.
Maybe the universe is vast and strange and wonderful precisely because we don’t understand it. Maybe that’s worth celebrating.
So, here’s to Maybe Day: the holiday that celebrates the one thing we can be absolutely certain about—that maybe we shouldn’t be absolutely certain about anything.
Maybe see you next year. Maybe not.
Fnord.
I don't sell memberships or anything, but if you want to buy me a beer, I won't refuse.
