In my dream I was sitting on the tram. I was waiting for it to finally depart. A single train, packed with people. With acquaintances and strangers. The bell was ringing, the doors had almost closed, when two controllers hopped on among the passengers. Immediately there was a mess. “We have no tickets!” people whispered confusedly and in the next second passengers were jumping off to the platform jostling and fighting with each other. The two controllers after them. I was left alone. The tram departed. At first it trundled slowly along the Danube, then I was travelling on the Japanese Super Express. I looked at the trees from the window and I felt as the uncertainty of changes and the strangeness of novelty crawled through my veins. It is not easy to give up the dullness of every days. It is so simple, convenient and safe (at least it seems to be). It goes by routine. You don’t even have to pay attention. Thinking is absolutely unnecessary. Day goes by after day. Sometimes the feeling embraces us that we should do it differently, do something different. But then we really should do something. Not just a little. But probably not too much. Maybe just the first step is difficult. Or it is also possible that what really frightens us is when we think it over that after the unknown step, an even more unknown one follows, and then something that we cannot even imagine or do not dare to imagine. Yet there are those who take a step. They change. Give it a try. Move. Live. Others have a cigarette... as a desire for freedom
When All Seems Lost — and Even When It Doesn’t… As a writer, I read more than average. Not necessarily books that fall within my immediate interests, but rather those I can learn from, marvel at, analyze word by word, and sometimes even those that demand more effort from me than usual. That is how it is with Alice Munro. I bought my first book by her when she received the Nobel Prize. Then life happened, and the volume sat on my bookshelf—either I had no time for it, or it lingered somewhere at the bottom of my list of priorities. When I finally picked it up, I could hardly believe my eyes—or my reaction. First, I was utterly outraged; my blood pressure shot through the roof in an instant, and I almost started swearing in disbelief. I had barely skimmed the first few lines, yet that was enough to know: it was perfect. A true masterpiece. Excellence among the excellent. Every word reached the deepest layers of my soul. I was touched by its purity, its delicacy, the noblest simpli...
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