Eden's Bane

He sat and suffered through it. The cruelest banalities of the diluted human experience. People called it boredom, but he knew it was more than that. Nothing that ever happened could induce an emotional reaction these days. He knew it as the bottom, and it felt as if he was losing everything. As if his own efforts to preserve meaning had only drove the process further.
         He took a deep breath, and let it out in a sigh. The transition was sudden, but he did not feel shock. There was no hole or tear in the space-time continuum, and no incredible motion to cause such a singularity. It was seamless; the red in his eyes instantly diminished and he felt an unexplained familiarity with these new images. He sat on an incline overlooking a beautiful panorama of sky and valley. Dark behemoths of vapor were gathered around the sun and stretched down, clinging to the ground beneath. The clouds focused the light, and the contrast created a hypnotic crimson that radiated throughout the whole of the firmament. He found himself walking down the hillside, trying to get closer.
         He wandered through the valley as the controlled intensity of the sunset faded away. He knelt at a small stream, and lowered to take a drink. The water was almost overwhelmingly refreshing. It felt as if he had been completely exasperated. The sensation lingered and there was no necessity to indulge. He laid down and listened to the water, these pleasant vibrations lulled him into a state of rest. He spent endless moments saturating his mind with the utter beauty of it all. His eyes closed on the subtle azure hues of the nightscape, and sleep didn’t  seem to require a surrendering.
         He woke early, without having to make a conscious effort. His vitality was even stronger. The sun felt good on his skin, in these first days of spring, the first kiss of the new season. He saw a band of people traveling along the tree line of a nearby forest and headed over to introduce himself. The budding community accepted him, and he walked and observed them for some time. These people that made an art out of survival.
         The irresistible scent of the pine forest started to fill his thoughts. He wanted to explore it. He was sure he would find another variety of fully realized serenity waiting for him beyond the dense outer layers. He said his farewells to the caravan and ventured inside. He was not disappointed to find that the atmosphere was in perfect equilibrium with his mood. The trees opened up to a large pool, newly created from the snowmelt. He bathed in it and then built a fire, it had never occurred to him in his duration here that he was hungry. He was able to locate the dens of a few sleeping rodents.
         Was this heaven? No, he concluded that somehow he’d traveled back in time. Humanity remembered the separation from Eden, and had not yet set out to make grander mistakes. It was an innocent world, not yet marred and disfigured by the repercussions of sin. Not stifled with structure and overpopulation, not teeming with diseases, not plagued with misleading ideologies. Tyrants had yet to rise and fall away, convoluted, pointless hierarchies had yet to establish themselves, to establish control. He felt a deep despair in knowing that it would soon be tainted.
         Why? He started to question everything around him. Why is it doomed to fall apart? The pond, the trees, the flames, this world in all it’s splendor began to disappear, and he soon realized why. The integration of modern reflections and perspectives detracted from the meaning. He knew he would be able to return once he could answer these questions of his, to put his frantic mind to rest. Soon enough, the regret melted away. He swam through an ocean of coworkers and friends. They saw him reanimated, but how cruel it was that they misunderstood.