Can a single, flickering candle illuminate a vast, ancient library enough to find the book you seek?
This is a chapter from my fourth book called When hunger yearns
I asked my friend Gemini to give me 5 random words and form a question with those words. After some back and forth I settled on this question. I have so many questions. How many books are in this library? How long will the candle last? What book am I looking for? Why am I looking for this book? Do I need a ladder to get to the top shelves? Are the books stored in alphabetical order? Am I alone? Is there a librarian? How much time am I allowed in the library? Is there light outside the library? How am I going to read the book after the candle goes out? If there is light outside the library then I could possibly grab books in the dark and carry them outside even when the candle goes out. Am I allowed to create small bonfires with the books I do not want? Would that be worth it? Would the means justify the end? Maybe there are some books with multiple copies and I could create the bonfires with the extra copies. Or maybe create the small bonfires with the pages containing the indexes? Should I start looking from a side or should I go to random spots?
The more I ask questions and the more I think about this question the more I want to answer the question with "I do not know". If I am meant to find this book then this book will find me. Maybe it is true what they say that the best way to find something is to stop looking for it. Maybe my time in the library is limited to the time the candle stays lit. Maybe I will just grab as many random books as possible. Maybe I could simulate this search through the power of the internet. I imagine 15 minutes of internet time is equivalent to 4 hours searching an ancient library with candle light. I am going to set a 15 minute timer on my phone and search the internet and see what books find me that pokes my interest. Below are the six books I found in that fifteen minutes.
1. What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (Randall Munroe)
2. Salt: A World History (Mark Kurlansky)
3. The Only Constant - A Guide to Embracing Change and Leading an Authentic Life (Najwa Zebian)
4. You Are the Happiness You Seek: Uncovering the Awareness of Being (Rupert Spira)
5. The Fault in Our Stars (John Green)
6. Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life (Héctor García and Francesc Miralles)
Out of that list, the one I am most interested in reading is "The Fault in Our Stars" mainly because I read Paper Towns by the same author. You know what. It just occurred to me that maybe the book I seek is the book I write myself. I could spend time in the ancient library laying down in a corner with the candle light flickering just thinking. Just being present. Just sharing space with the spirits that wrote those books and hoping the words from those books seep into the ether and into my thoughts. I will then contemplate on what my next book would be about given the context of this question and my time in this ancient library. How about "Seeking Peace"? Or simply SOUP where soup stands for seeking openness, understanding and peace. How about "My ingredients for soup"? My journey towards finding peace. That would be a fitting title after having written this book "When Hunger Yearns".
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