Greg

I find our chats to be amusing and I do let them humour me. It's like we're throwing a ball at one another with it landing nowhere near us. Fortunately, I don't take them seriously and it's a great way to kill time, for sure. At the end of the day, it doesn't get anywhere, and it feels like fluff. It's clear that you have no intention of forming a genuine connection.

At least, not with me.

Excerpts from Haruki Murakami's 'Norwegian Wood'

 

Nobody likes being alone that much. I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all. It just leads to disappointment.

.....

I don't like having something control me like that.

....

What makes us most normal is knowing that we're not normal.

....

"What possible is stuff like that for everyday life?"
"None at all. It may not serve any concrete purpose, but it does give you some kind of training to help you grasp things in general more systematically."

...

What if there were a deus ex machina in real life? Everything would be so easy! If you felt stuck or trapped, some god would swing down from up there and solve all your problems. What could be easier than that?

...

No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness, can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. All we can do is see that sadness through to the very end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sadness that comes to us without warning.

...

Mortality

When I saw that stillness, I paused, held my breath, and leaned close to check for breathing. Then, a sense of relief washed all over me. I quietly let out a heavy sigh as I carefully distanced myself from the slumbering body, not wanting to rouse it. My breathing eased, but only by a fraction.

And then, I closed my eyes for a moment, desperately attempting to purge that dreadful thought.

No matter how unwilling I am to accept that inevitability, that day will come, with or without a sign. It dawned upon me that there may be no way to prepare oneself for such a thing.