“After
that, I didn’t have to think anymore. Or, more precisely, there wasn’t the need
to try to consciously think about not thinking. All I had to do was go with the
flow and I’d get there automatically. If I gave myself up to it, some sort of
power would naturally push me forward.”
“The end
of the race is just a temporary marker without much significance. It´s the same
with our lives. Just because there’s an end doesn’t mean existence has meaning.
An end point is simply set up as temporary marker, or perhaps as an indirect metaphor
for the fleeting nature of existence. It’s very philosophical – not that at
this point I’m thinking how philosophical it is .. I just vaguely experience
this idea, not with words, but as a physical sensation.”
“But in
real life things don’t go so smoothly. At certain points in our lives, when we
really need a clear-cut solution, the person who knocks at our door is, more
likely than not, a messenger bearing bad news. It isn’t always the case, but
from experience I’d say the gloomy reports far outnumber the others. The
messenger touches his hand to the cap and looks apologetic, but that does nothing
to improve the contents of the message. It isn’t the messenger’s fault. No good
to blame him, no good to grab him by the collar and shake him. The messenger is
just conscientiously doing the job his boss assigned him. And this boss? That would
be none other than our old friend Reality.”
“It doesn’t
matter how old I get, but as long as I continue to live I’ll always discover
something new about myself. No matter how long you stand there examining
yourself naked before a mirror, you’ll never see reflected what’s inside.
“I have
no idea whether I can actually keep this cycle of inefficient activities going
forever. But I’ve done it so persistently over such a long time, and without getting
terribly sick of it, that I think I’ll try to keep going as long as I can.”
“One by
one, I’ll face the tasks before me and complete them as best I can. Focusing on
each stride forward, but at the same time taking a long-range view, scanning the
scenery as far ahead as I can. I am, after all, a long-distance runner.”
In “What
I talk about when I talk about running” de Haruki Murakami
FATifer
