Tale VII: How Soon Is Now

The hut stands alone on the glacier. Day after day, the glacier breaks up into icebergs, drifting with the waves, floating in and out of the wind, snow and crash. A sudden storm destroys the only shelter. The storm continues all day and J, the only inhabitant, is forced to embark on another journey to find the next place to live. He made his way to a frozen lake halfway up the mountain. As the wind and snow eased and his vision became clearer, J looked at his own shadow on the ice and was lost in thought. As he was about to get up and set off again, he noticed a dark, haloed shadow deep in the ice, and as he lay on his back, his eyes widened as he looked down, and there were houses frozen in the ice! They were either broken or intact and even had different architectural forms, mostly leftover from different periods. It turned out that there had been other people living on this iceberg, and that some of the houses had even been frozen suddenly, perhaps before anyone had had time to escape. In his memoirs to his children and grandchildren, J wrote, After that, I stopped being all whiny and defiant. Compared to the majestic world of nature, man is a mere flash in the pan.

All the hard entities and so-called solid orders created for the sake of life are fighting against nature every moment of every day. The only way to stop and go is to follow the guidance of nature. Perhaps in the next habitable place, one can do something to stop this great storm, perhaps nothing. One day humanity will find a way to live in peace with nature and a balance between transience and permanence. Humanity and all the products of modernity, from the beginning of their existence and even their constant evolution and coexistence, are ultimately part of nature.