Blog (2023)

The journey.

I found myself standing in a dimly lit hallway, surrounded by towering bookshelves that stretched endlessly before me. Each one was filled to the brim with books, their spines neatly aligned and waiting to be explored. Above me, the towering structures stretched towards infinity, piercing the boundless expanse of the night sky. A ceilingless void, adorned with a myriad of twinkling lights, which I can only surmise to be the distant stars. The brightness of their radiance allowed me to perceive the world that enveloped me. The towering bookshelves stood erect, forming a narrow passageway that allowed for a solitary figure to wander through. To my left and right, the shelves stretched endlessly, row upon row, as far as my eyes could perceive. I found myself in a place unknown, with no recollection of how I arrived. Suddenly, a small girl materialised before me, emerging from the labyrinth of bookshelves. She clutched a voluminous tome, nearly as large as her diminutive frame. She hummed a melody and sang to herself, repeating the phrase "I possess an excess of books" like a faulty vinyl record spinning for an audience of one. She gave me a warm smile and then swiftly darted towards me, passing right through my body. I did not turn around to witness her departure, for I deemed it unnecessary to comprehend. A distance of several shelves separated me from an elderly gentleman. He deftly balanced a stack of books in his left hand, tossing them one by one onto the already overflowing shelves. I must confess that I am baffled as to how he was able to find the necessary space to seamlessly integrate those books amidst the already brimming volumes on the shelves. I found myself bewildered by his actions. Each instance a tome entered his possession, he would exclaim with fervour to his inner self, "Yes!" He emitted a sense of contentment with his current activity. Neither the young girl nor the elderly gentleman appeared to be disturbed by my existence in this space. I summoned the necessary fortitude to turn around and ascertain the whereabouts of the young girl. I searched high and low, but she remained elusive, like a fleeting dream that disappears upon waking. The portal from which I arrived has vanished without a trace. As I gazed ahead, an endless expanse of bookshelves stretched out before me, each one brimming with volumes upon volumes of written words. I found myself curiously detached from the events unfolding around me. It is only natural to feel a certain sense of expectation in a place like this. It is simply what it is. I sauntered towards the closest bookcase and delicately extracted a tome. Like a ritualistic act, I opened the book and turned to its initial page, my eyes scanning the very first sentence. It is said that we all mature with time. I gave it a smile and thought, "We don’t grow up. Our perspectives only change as we navigate through the labyrinth of life." We simply continue to age. I shut the tome and returned it to its original resting place. I turned my head to the left and then to the right, examining my surroundings. The path I walked was flanked by an infinite number of books, arranged neatly on shelves that seemed to stretch on forever. For me, the journey ahead stretches out like an endless road, travelling through the unknown. And yet, it is not the destination that calls to me, but the journey itself. I placed my foot forward, and from that moment onward, until this very instant.