Rumours of Another World
"Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table" W.H. Auden
Sometimes it gets hard. Always we just keep going.
Anyhoo, I'm here to tell you about the next thing sitting on the surface of my mind. I really want to tell you about this book I read (or half read) a few years ago. When I first got it, I just came across it, pulled it off the bookshelf and began reading it. I was a community loaner but I didn't hand it back. I'm not a theif. I didn't steal it. I just never finished it so I never gave it back. That's how it works where I got it from. Read the book. Bring it back. I'm mostly a law abiding citizen. I get a few dirty looks from others for being too loud and the occasional P-Plater fine is about as bad-ass as I get. THIS book had me from the moment I picked it up. Following a sort of recent house move I have picked it up again. This time, with the intention of finishing it. I'm really hoping the rest of it is as good as I remember. Whenever I get the shits I think of THIS book. If you do ever read it and just get it then maybe you will understand why.
Think of the many different types of religions or belief systems that others may have. There are so many different types and committed members are devout and so sure their faith is the 'right one'. Sometimes life can be missing something, and too often? The book reminds me of the simple things that society, general or other, has normalised which just don't seem to fit for me and the hint of emptiness and maybe even loneliness that comes with not digesting some of life's social norms. Life seems to of become about pruchasing. This implies we are so simple or can be simplified when in fact we are complex. It's ok to be at least a little depth in ourselves. By societal norms we look for shortcuts to happiness and create idealisms in ourselves and others. We tell ourselves that we are 'different' if we think normal things are strange and our perceptions play a massive role in how we allow ourselves to fit in or even object.
Having said this, it hasn't been hard for me to think I'm slipping further away from society. I keep making mistakes. I miss things and I want things I can't have. I have ideals and I live inside my head. I may or may not ever know if I'm right, that there's something else out there. A greater power, a god, but I never have stopped believing. My beliefs will always be a part of me. The only difference now is that I'm counting on it a little more than before. Maybe I hold on a little harder. Maybe sometimes I'm even a little more lost.
Regardless of what you believe or what you think you will find, I challenge you to read the book. The book does not suggest a church or religious doctrine. It looks at the world and suggests there is more of an unseen world within the seen world. I guess that's why I like it. The book itself is probably interesting enough with consideration to most existing perspectives, but it could also be so much more. Vote 1 for more.
Read it. I dare ya.
-Mez