Blind.Faith 2.0.50. Tomasz Tatum

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СКАЧАТЬ was even Confucian?–proclaimed that a journey of a thousand leagues begins with but a single step. But this time around–on his very first longer journey without Fulton at their side!–there were no words to begin marking this first leg of the trip, this first step of his very own and very personal million kilometer journey. It was as though he had courageously started forward and stumbled foolishly upon taking his very first step. Even at his still young age, he was acutely aware that he had doubtlessly just made a transition of some sort but, for some reason which he simply could not place his finger on, that first critical threshold denoting this had already ceased to exist in his head.

      He felt ill. He felt like throwing up. His stomach immediately drew itself into a tight knot. Deep within, he wished that Fulton were with him and that all would be well again.

      As he once related this sensation many years later, on a largely barren beach located at the fringe of Libertyville@Esperantia, a very smart and very sexy young woman would mention to him that she had once, in the course of her studies, actually enjoyed reading theories attributed to a fellow named Monderman, a Dutch traffic analyst of yore, who had gained renown for his astute observation that traffic and humans represent parallel realities that, by their inherent nature, are incompatible but damned to a state of uneasy coexistence with one another.

      In any event, on that particular morning his momentary exasperation was finally punctuated by the sober thump of the airplane’s landing gear as it settled down on the runway. After touchdown and the subsequent rollout, he leaned back in his seat and mutely watched the usual small armada of service vehicles on the floodlit apron slowly approach as the aircraft taxied to its parking position at a small terminal and came to a halt. Everything that he could observe was moving in the wrong fashion here. Busses and baggage loaders jostled for their positions in a stream of traffic heeding rules odd and foreign to him.

      And it wasn’t only his surprise at the realization of the left-hand traffic, which he was observing for the first time in his life. The impression was like a negatively-laden ion or the wrong pole of a magnet, pushing itself away instead of being attracted, going against the grain of his perceptions. This in itself might have otherwise represented one of the anecdotal mosaic stones occupying its rightful place in the narrative. But it didn’t fit–or Charles was unable to recognize how it might.

      For him, the problem was that the cue for which he was waiting and hoping was still missing and the opportunity to grasp it had already disappeared, relegated to the past.time before he could begin build upon it.

      So, although this was technically only a simple fuelling stop on the journey to their new home, what he saw underscored his insecurity, heightening his awareness that, from this day onward, everything was going to be entirely different than it was before.

      It was already exactly as Niklas had promised.

      Or threatened?

      Parked on a concrete apron at an airport on a tropical island for now, this family of spiritual castaways was geographically probably only halfway to Libertyville@Esperantia. But Charles keenly sensed that the past.time was already being permanently wrenched from his grip while the future.time was not even close to being within reach.

      He glanced wearily at Niklas and recalled the drunken tirade on the porch that morning not so long before.

      “When we’re gone, we ain’t coming back. No visit or nothing. Never!”

      As the decision to emigrate to Libertyville@Esperantia finally and irreversibly crystallized, Niklas’ interpretation of his religion and its role in his spiritual life remained a source of great mystery to Charles. Additionally, as a soon-to-be budding teen it was not all that unusual that he was both too young and often too distracted to have any really meaningful comprehension of the many intricacies of modern politics that tangibly affected such a move.

      Charles nonetheless later recalled having found it very odd that instead of simply getting into the car or a plane and heading directly to this place of his dreams called Libertyville@Esperantia, which had more or less unilaterally been decided upon to be their new home, Niklas had spent many weeks and months whispering furtively, trading secrets with an endless stream of old men who came to sit on the front porch and then bade farewell again.

      In retrospect, it was little more than a veritable procession of elders who had some mysterious stake in the family’s well-being, continually urging Niklas on while they themselves remained right where they were.

      The tribulations involved in giving up an entire household–the family ultimately ended up donating everything they could not sell or carry, much of it to the very same group of old men who had incessantly encouraged Niklas to move on–wore heavily on him and especially so upon his mother. Years later, it would dawn upon Charles that having to travel what seemed like halfway around the worldmonde.Planet and then most of the way back again to reach this place was nothing more than just one more step in an intricate series of choreographed maneuvers designed to relieve unsuspecting idiots such as Niklas of a significant portion of their last savings while continuing to raise their expectations and to heighten their sense of isolation in a world they have no real stake or even interest in.

      Niklas explained it to Jacqueline again and again.

      “Look: it’s simple, honey. No diplomatic recognition means no goddamn traffic rights. We can’t just go there like we going on one of those sit-on-the-beach vacations or driving to the goddamn grocery store. We gotta go there from somewhere else. I know it’s bullshit, but that’s politics. That’s what I mean. That’s why we wanna be leaving here in the first place! And that’s the reason why we gotta go fly to a place like cayman.City first.”

      Libertyville@Esperantia perceived itself as a modern and industrious city. It was a city that lauded its hardworking craftsmen, that took great pride in the many carpenters and electricians, machine toolers and clerks, masons and butchers and bakers whose hard work and solid traditions dominated daily life for nearly all of the inhabitants dwelling within the boundaries of the city and state.

      It regarded itself as a modern city, too. This was perhaps because it was firmly in the grip of an immense and arguably self-perpetuating civil administrative apparatus that was required simply for the purpose of maintaining and entrenching the status quo.

      For these reasons, it was also a city that decided that it didn’t require a great number of airports and seaports, networks and motorways to facilitate trade and commerce with goods that were regularly deemed to be far too abstract or markets that were often considered to be way too remote. It was a city that was more than happy to find itself insulated from most, if not all, of the crazy convulsions and dynamics that were part and parcel of a very quirky and dynamic outside worldmonde.Planet

      It was a city that prized the gift of stability and predictability over everything else.

      It was a city that felt compelled to outwardly celebrate diversity but, deep within its heart, cherished conformity.

      Charles later found it most unusual that there were not even golden arches to be seen prior to their landing in Libertyville@Esperantia. In fact, there was little else that he could readily recognize as his gaze scanned over the city during the final approach.

      There was very little written advertising. There were a few stern-sounding messages, more like slogans actually, apparently alluding to the greatness of the nation but which left no lasting impression on him, that could be seen here and there. But, most remarkably to him, there were almost no logos or symbols of any kind to be seen.

      To Charles, the first impression that presented itself at the end of their travels and the beginning of their real journey that commenced with their new СКАЧАТЬ