Far from Everything

“I want to get away from everything,” said a friend of mine. Sometimes life feels like rereading the same book from the beginning. Each time we read it, we notice different things, but the outcome is always the same. We may recognize the new characters in the book on the second reading, perhaps on the fifth. The person wants to pick up a different book but cannot. They are stuck in that book, trying to understand it, striving to go deeper into its depths. The surroundings are so chaotic that they cannot even focus on the book. Life is just like that. We always want to understand life and yet wish to escape from everything. For instance, we can stand for hours gazing at the sea or watching the sky. We long to go into a forest and listen to the sounds of trees and birds in that silence. We want to feel the gentle coolness the breeze leaves on our skin. In that moment, we simply wish to detach from life, to become abstracted from everything. As Pinhani said, “Let us find a place far from the world.”^【1】

Perhaps right now we are dreaming of finding a place far from the world with the person we love most. That place will be found. Maybe in a year, maybe in ten years, but it will be found. We will be in different places. The people we love most will have changed. You may no longer remember the name of the person you once dreamed with. But you will never forget the dreams you built with them. You will not forget the conversations you had. Then, by chance, you encounter a moment like that again. While watching the sea, those beside you ask, “Who is the person who fills your eyes with tears yet makes you smile?” At that moment your throat tightens and you cannot speak. A few tears slip from your eyes and they keep asking. You cannot say it. You close your eyes and the memories flood before you. You remember all the places you have been to arrive here now. You realize you have overcome every single thing you once thought you could not endure. This is how the meaning of life emerges. As the song says, “When you look at an old photograph, when you count the years, when suddenly your eyes fill with tears—that is just such a thing.”^【2】 I say too, “That is just such a thing.”