How did you get here? What does it all mean? Hey. Where did all the time go? Who are you? When will you die? Listen. Will you make the world better? Will you ever truly love anyone? This is it. DON’T IT’S You are a unique miracle. “But even if the future gave us no cause for Life is as important as you want it to be. “I read the other day some hope - the fact of our existing at all in this here-and-now must be the stron- verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conven- The Exit Exam Obstacle 1 Obstacle 2 Legalities gest incentive to us to live according to our laws and standards: the inexpli- tional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be cable fact that we live precisely today, when we had all infinite time in what it may. The sentiment they instil is of more value than any thought they which to come into existence, that we possess only a shortlived today in Copyright © 2011 by Tim Peters. Some of the characters and events in may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for this book are fictitious, but some are which to demonstrate why and to what end we came into existence now you in your private heart is true for all men, - that is genius. Speak your factual. Any apparent similarity to real and at no other time. We are responsible to ourselves for our own exis- latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due All rights reserved. No part of this book persons is sometimes intended by the tence; consequently we want to be the true helsman of this existence and time becomes the outmost,-- and our first thought is rendered back to us by may be reproduced in any form (except author, and sometimes just a coinci- ALL Laziness Fear refuse to allow our existence to resemble a mindless act of chance. One SLOW the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to small portions for review purposes) with- dence. has to take a somewhat bold and dangerous line with this existence: espe- out written consent from the author. each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they How will you cially as, whatever happens, we are bound to lose it. Why go on clinging to Where the names of real places, corpo- set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they this clod of earth, this way of life, why pay heed to what your neighbor rations, institutions, works of art, com- thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which Laziness Fear says? It is so parochial to bind oneself to views which are no longer bind- The following chapters appeared earlier, merical products, and public figures are flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of say what you ing even a couple of hundred miles away. Orient and Occident are chalk- in somewhat different form: used within this novel, they are some- UP bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is lines drawn before us to fool our timidity. I will make an attempt to attain times meant to denote only made-up his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they have to say freedom, the youthful soul says to itself; and is it to be hindered in this by “The Varieties of Gratification,” “The De- stuff, and sometimes meant to denote DOWN come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no for yourself? the fact that two nations happen to hate and fight one another, or that two mystification Process,” and “The things that are presently real. more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our sponta- Laziness Fear continents are separated by an ocean, or that all around it a religion is Threshold of Autonomy” at Inside Higher TO neous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole taught which did not yet exist a couple of thousand years ago. All that is Ed. cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with Version 1.0 not you, it says to itself. No one can construct for you the bridge upon masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, “Some Very Brief Affairs,” “My Volup- which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another. Laziness Fear tuous Delusions,” and “Conspiracy www.timsletters.com alone. There are, to be sure, countless paths and bridges and demi-gods There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the con- Gothic” at The Rumpus. NOW YOU which would bear you through this stream; but only at the cost of yourself: viction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide you would put yourself in pawn and lose yourself. There exists in the world “A Sentimental Correspondence” at Wheaton, Illinois - Chicago, Illinois Laziness Fear a single path along which no one can go except you: whither does it lead? Guernica. May - November, 2011 universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him Do not ask, go along it. Who was it said: ‘a man never rises higher than but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to when he does not know whither his path can still lead him’?” (F. Nietzsche) him to till.” (R.W. Emerson) What You Need to Do START 2 . 1. Carl worked at a national news program in Washington, D.C., 1. 2. They began with where he was at the bottom of the company hierarchy. The studios were at an office in the suburbs of Virginia. Carl rode THE AVERAGE DAY THE two subway trains and a bus to get to work. When the subway so much joy, passed above the Potomac River, toward the Pentagon, jet planes W A K E U P BREAKFAST landing at the airport crossed just overhead. In the distance were other bridges busy with auto traffic and passenger and freight s o m u c h to do our loving. I tried to put my hand down her S O trains. In such moments, Carl daydreamed about his subway COMMUTE G E T G O I N G train plunging into the river. The commute to and from work VARIETIES confidence. made him feel like a gelatinous organism being thrust about COFFEE WORK within some enormous and throbbing labyrinth of iron. He felt if there was to be an accident or a terrorist attack, it would be em- OF LUNCH WORK Instructions barrassing to die amongst strangers like those on the mass transit system. One weekend, Carl caught a stomach flu and on his way to work that Monday he was nauseous. Suddenly, the commute TEA W R A P U P 1.FIRST ENCOUNTER made sense. Nausea was the proper lighting to view this grim pro- cession for the bureaus of Babylon. Carl felt like he couldn’t take COMMUTE DINNER much more of this. Something had to give. GRATIFICATION The Subject perceives the presence of the RELAX SLEEP Other. The Other may or may not arouse strong feelings in the Subject, but stands out and belong to the category of potential mates. They Respond in the space provided at right to ten (10) of make eye contact. The Subject looks at the Other, inspects the body, and looks again. The 3. Since he didn’t get home until 8:00 PM, Carl’s dinner was an It was a Wednesday evening in February. Carl Subject is intrigued and moves to get into the attempt to solve a culinary equation involving minimal prep time 1 Other’s line-of-sight. and maximal nutrition, flavor, and freshness. For the time being, was just getting home from the studio. It had the following twenty (20) prompts below. the answer to this equation involved: a microwaved sweet potato; 2 4. While Carl found smoking marijuana after work relaxing, he a boiled vegetable, like broccoli or green beans; reheated black been a gloomy, average day. felt it put him into a stupor little different from the stupor he Desire beans or baked beans; crackers and cheese; and a glass of water or found himself in at the office every day. While this evening occasionally a Coca-Cola. For dessert, Carl ate two or three store- stupor was more pleasant and peaceful than the daytime one, 2. CASUAL INTERACTION bought cookies (or graham crackers and honey if he didn’t have they were both just two species of a category of mental state he cookies) and drank a small glass of milk. detested - the state of having nothing to say, of dullness, of intel- lectual constipation. Either by pure chance, or by human machi- nations, the Subject and the Other are Your answers may be of any length, but must be con- His roommate was out. He made himself his brought into a proximity allowing for conver- usual dinner 3 and ate it while listening to classical sation.