Chapter VI. Conversation - Letter From A Persevering Friend
Chapter VI. Conversation
Lara was a friend of the young-adult man. Two met in their freshman year in college. They happened to take a same class and got to know each other. Though two felt that they should become more than just classmates or acquaintances, nothing special happened. But years passed, in the internet age, they found each other online. This was about a year ago, and he was about to leave Japan for India. She was in Vancouver, Canada. He learned that, after the freshman year, she ended up dropping out of college and traveled to a couple of different places over the next several years. Just a few years ago, she decided to go back to school and become a doctor; she was already in Canada then. Initially, they exchanged a few emails. Eventually, they started exchanging many more emails. Lately, it became customary for them to chat online twice a day; this became almost a daily routine. And today, in the midst of toilsome time, he started telling her about his diary.
He started typing and explaining about what was on his mind. The more he read his diary from three years ago, the more parallel lines he found between events that took place then and events that were taking place now. Recently, he read ‘How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later’, an essay written by Philip K. Dick; it is an essay he wanted to read for some time, and only recently did he have chance to read it. Now that he read it, he was not so sure if he agreed with him. Also the whole essay sounded rather confusing. In his opinion, essays ought to have rigid structures and they ought to convey carefully constructed logical arguments. Philip K. Dick did not do that in this essay. This writer was really big in drugs, and it was very possible that he was under the influence when he wrote this essay. The young-adult man realized that he was diverging a little. Then he typed that, having said this, he had nothing against Philip K. Dick; in fact, he still had a favorable opinion about him and his novels. Then, he got to the point.
In the essay, the writer reiterates religious ideas and he basically argues that time might not be what it is believed to be; time is a part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence. There are events that appear so similar; these are not just historical events, but one experiences such events in his/her life in one lifetime. He argues that this is not because time doe not exist. Much of what, he thinks, he sees is an illusion; it is not real. What is real is that there are events that do take place, and there are illusions that appear to be in different times and different places, but all these illusions are essentially illusions of one set of events. For example, suppose that there was a young bright engineer-to-be in Florence, Italy in 15th century. He worked for a well-known wealthy engineer at that time. But this young engineer’s boss was mean and cruel; he figured that it was not worth working under him and he just quit and left. After years of struggle, he became a prominent engineer of the Renaissance era. Suppose that one man (or woman) reads a detailed account of this man. But he might find that the story is just like what he is going through in the 21st century. He is becoming a bright engineer; he used to work for an established engineer in Detroit. But the boss kept yelling, screaming and cursing at him so he quit. He might find that as he reads the account of the man in 15th century Florence, the story sounds just like his except for the place and the time. Something eerie like this does happen. Philip K. Dick’s answer to this is that this is because ‘time is not real.’
After he explained this, two continued chatting.
Lara: “You’re depressed.”
The young adult man, TYAM: ”Yeah, I guess so.”
Lara: ”You know …, I’m sure that you’ll figure out a way to get out of this.”
TYAM: ”Yeah?”
Lara: ”What I mean to say is that you might not be able to correct the current situation, but you’ll find a way somehow in the end.”
TYAM: ”Ok.”
Lara: ”You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. Things might not work out the way you want them to, but it’s ok. Life is like that sometimes, and it’s important to realize that, even if this whole thing turns out to be what you see as a failure, it’s the tuition you pay for success. And, you know, even if you end up leaving there not achieving any … financial success, what matters is what you’ll do afterwards. Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up, and I don’t think that you’re refusing to get up. You’re always trying to stand tall or you are standing tall.”
TYAM: ”So you’re saying that I should get out of here?”
Lara: ”I’m asking that you don’t go cross the line. This is not the end of life and it’s ok if you can’t correct problems you have now like you envision.”
TYAM: “I’ll think about it.”
He stared at the monitor for a short while. It was well past midnight. It was almost 2:00 am. He promised that he would keep her updated and logged off.
