Remembrance & Departure

“Do you know what the hardest story to write is?”

I pondered his question as we walked, feeling the fallen leaves crunch beneath our boots. Passing by a puddle on the side of the trail, I saw my distorted reflection against a silvery sky.

“A story about love?”

“A story about writing the hardest story. Are you surprised?”

Admittedly, I was.

“A lot of people think of art as some vague and mystical medium of beauty, but at its essence, it’s just communication. Art is a story of suffering. Depictions of battlefields tell a story about the soldiers who died there. Portraits of beauteous maidens tell a story about an impossible romance. Do you know what the word ‘passion’ is derived from? Suffering.”

I put a finger to my lip, taking in his words.

“So, the hardest story to write is one about conquering the greatest pain?”

“Indeed. Every artist strives to create such a story. Every attempt puts us closer to our goal, every book is another brick in the Tower of Babel. As time goes on, more art is created– More things are being communicated. Humanity becomes better at understanding itself.”

“That’s uncharacteristically optimistic of you to say.”

“Glad you realised. So here’s the rub. As humans approached the domain of God, of omniscience, that is, total mutual understanding between all people, we crossed a line. Just when we thought we were in the final stretch, our individualism, our instinctive selfishness, came to bite us in our back. The tip of the tower, the final piece of art to complete humanity’s goal… We couldn’t agree on what it was, and we didn’t know when to stop. Small disputes quickly became massive schisms, spreading all the way down to the base. Everything came tumbling down.”

“That’s devastating.”

“That’s life.”

“But that’s all the past. Where do we stand today?”

Kaiser laughed.

“Art is dead. The things people make nowadays are worthless, they don’t communicate a single thing. Nobody understands their own suffering anymore, so nobody can write stories about it. We’re in an ice age. We’re all frozen, but time marches on. No man, not even God, can stop that.”