The Great Library
The Great Library
IMAGINE being born, growing up and living your entire life
within the confines of an enormous College or University LIBRARY.
Picture it… your entire life lived within this GIGANTIC library.
Your parents, your mother and father, the ones who are closest to you and who love you the most are there and have always been there as long as you can remember.
Your siblings, the ones who shared the same parents and similar experiences growing up together with you are there.
Your extended family who loves you and shares your culture, background, and heritage and with whom you share and celebrate many special occasions are also there.
The friends you made growing up are there too.
It is a very pleasant library, and you feel very SAFE and LOVED there. You never even contemplated the absence of these things because the were ALWAYS THERE.
You have never known existence
without love and safety.
ALL was provided…
As an infant your every need was provided.
As a child you roamed the vast expanse of the library, EXPLORING every nook and cranny, every passageway, opening every door, exploring every room, until there was no corner that you did not know, had not gone to, explored, or played in.
Elders
There were many wise ones there in the library as well.
Elders and teachers who were much older than you who you could converse with, be entertained by their stories, and be guided by their IMMENSE WISDOM when you had questions or sought advice.
If you needed solace or comforting or to be reassured or encouraged, all this was there too.
A Nice place to be…
This library was a very pleasant place.
The temperature was always a comfortable and dry 21C (70F). It was never too hot or too cold.
It never rained or snowed
and there was only one season: NICE.
It was always the Nice season, with nice weather and nice forecasts for more nice weather.
There were no dangerous animals, just friendly puppies, and kittens.
There were no insects, no ants to invade your food, flies bother you, bees to sting you, or mosquitoes to bite you.
Millions of books…
And being a library, of course, there were books, millions and millions of books with billions and trillions of pages.
Books about EVERY topic and subject and area of interest you had. If you thought of a new area of interest, you could always find a book that covered it.
There were information books, and story books full of adventure, there were romance books, and books about absurd escapades, comedies, tragedies, people getting lost and then miraculously found.
People losing hope then regaining hope. People seeking love, finding love, and losing love.
People being born, living, and dying. There were stories of fear, and of doubt, and feeling unworthiness, and struggle, and suffering, and terror, and it was these stories you liked the MOST because when the going got tough and the plot changed direction suddenly, and things later turned around for the characters..
…THIS was when you felt most DRAWN IN, almost like you were a PART of the story, LIVING the story,
…not just reading about it.
After a while, as you grew up, you discovered that you had read ALL the books…
ALL the letters, of all the words of all the sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, you had read them all so many times, that you knew them all by heart.
You no longer needed to read…
…but could just THINK of them and you instantly knew them.
Instant knowing…
After a time, you came to know that you KNEW all things.
You didn’t need to recall them, the knowing of them was just there, instantly, all the time.
In addition to reading the words, you had also looked at the PICTURES that depicted the events of the topics and stories contained in all the books. You pored over them, studied them, committed them to your visual memory such that when you wanted, you could just THINK of them and immediately the images flashed into your mind’s eye.
Like the knowing of the knowledge that was always there…
…the SEEING of the images was ALWAYS there too.
A new sensation…
And bit by bit, more and more, you began to perceive a NEW feeling and sensation that you had never had before:
BOREDOM.
More and more you found that you were BORED.
More and more you found yourself WANDERING to the perimeter of the library, that enormous University library, that Universe-city library and looking out through the windows at what existed beyond.
- Beyond the WALLS,
- Beyond all the LOVE and SAFETY,
- Beyond the universal KNOWLEDGE and omnipresent knowing of all things and seeing of all things,
- Beyond all the LOVE and SAFETY,
…you looked out and wondered what it would be like to be OUT THERE?
The terrarium…
You had begun to feel like a bug in a glass terrarium, living in a hermetically SEALED world that was homeostatic and balanced and SAFE …and BORING.
Never at PERIL of any creature or experience that could provoke fear or doubt or terror or surprise like that which happened in the stories you read, because you already knew and had seen everything.
You had explored every corner of the terrarium
and knew it completely.
There was NOTHING anywhere new to be discovered, to be experienced, to be learned, to be FELT.
You realized that in all the stories you had read, you felt like you were an OBSERVER, reading an account that ANOTHER experienced, but which you had NOT experienced yourself.
Soon your boredom was joined by another sensation:
CRAVING…
You had ALWAYS had everything you needed. You had wanted for nothing, but now you CRAVED.
You craved to receive something that was NEW, and you craved to be able to viscerally EXPERIENCE it, not just intellectually know it.
You began to feel that without experiencing in this way, you were not fully alive.
That WAS a strange thought, because as long as you could remember you were always living, you had always been alive and knew that you had always existed and would always exist, for you knew you could never die. You knew that you were ETERNAL.
But as you stood there, nose pressed against the terrarium glass, looking out feeling bored and craving SOMETHING new to experience and feel, you began to WONDER if something inside you was slowly dying.
The interest, the engagement, the anticipation, the wonder, and appreciation of EVERYTHING
was WANING and it FELT like you were dying.
Soon another foreign feeling emerged:
SADNESS…
Profound sadness and hopelessness that you would NEVER get beyond the boredom and emptiness and craving for something new to VISCERALLY feel and be immersed in.
You craved to BE in the story; to experience a true adventure, a drama, a comedy, a tragedy.
And just when you were about to give up hope and resign yourself to the AGONY of eternal boredom, and almost welcome the idea of perishing to escape it all…
…then it happened…
The Voice…
Suddenly there was an arm on your shoulder and a voice in your ear.
It was one of the elders, perhaps the OLDEST one you had ever seen.
The face was old, but the eyes were kind, and the smile was gentle. Without speaking, but merely looking at you and expressing, you began to HEAR the voice in your head.
“Grasshopper,” it said,“I have been watching you for a very long time.”
“I sense your sadness and craving. The time has come, you are ready. I have something to share.”
Golden Scholarship…
“Grasshopper, there is something called a SCHOLARSHIP; a golden ticket for PASSAGE to a place you have never been before, to experience things you have never experienced before, things you could never experience here.”
“These things can ONLY be experienced OUT THERE, beyond the glass, beyond the love and the safety and the all-knowing and all-seeing you have known.”
“It is a scholarship, not to get INTO a University, this is a scholarship to get OUT OF the Universe-city you have always been in.”
“It is highly sought after scholarship. The number available is a small fraction of the ones seeking them. It is a great OPPORTUNITY and a great PRIVILEGE to receive, but I believe you are ready.”
“The time has come, and I am willing to advocate for you to receive such scholarship if you choose to pursue it, but first there is something you must know.”
“For the scholarship to yield greatest benefit, there must be a TRADE-OFF, an exchange. It is only temporary, but it is significant and not all are willing to accept it.”
The big trade-off…
“To receive greatest benefit beyond the glass you must temporarily surrender your all-knowing, all-seeing omniscience.”
“In exchange you will receive VIVID and visceral sensations not possible otherwise.”
“You must FORGET this place and everything and everyone here.
You will feel largely cutoff and separate and alone.”
“Although we will be watching and cheering for you, it will be difficult to HEAR US and our shouts of encouragement.”
“You will be FREE to explore and experience and live as you wish.”
“You will experience the consequences of your choices POWERFULLY, whether they result in desired or undesired outcomes and sensations.”
Counselling by the Council…
“IF you decide to proceed, you would be counselled, by The Council. Prior to departure, together, you would SELECT your preferred destination, circumstances, onsite resources, gender, personality, and aptitudes that would be yours for the duration.”
“You would design and equip your own ship, but once you push away from the shore you would be on your own to chart your own course.”
Not for the faint of heart…
The elder leaned close and said solemnly, “This is not an adventure for the faint of heart.
This is an adventure for the most BRAVE and CURIOUS and HUNGRY.
Do you believe yourself to BE all these things?
Do you agree to the exchange and all it entails?
Do you accept the opportunity with all the challenges it brings?”
“Grasshopper, the choice is yours. What say you?”
The Answer…
With absolutely ZERO hesitation, Grasshopper exclaimed,
“YES.”
”At the top of his lungs, he cried an enthusiastic YES.
YES, YES, YES, Hell YES, I WANT to go, I WANT to experience!
- I am SO bored here;
- I am SO tired of being SAFE.
- I am tired of READING about things,
- I want to LIVE them.
- I want to FEEL the sensations of risk and adventure, highs and lows, love and loss and EVEN fear!
- I am SO tired of being SAFE.
- I WANT TO EXPERIENCE IT ALL!