Monthly Archives: November 2007

Throw him to the ground

Yet another elder said: If you see a young monk by his own will climbing up into heaven, take him by the foot and throw him to the ground, because what he is doing is not good for him.

— Sayings of the Desert Fathers

I took a trip

I took a trip to conquer my boredom, but I still woke up bored every day. Torpor descended on me. I passed through hot countries. I saw nothing but sand and dust and restaurants. Like the dust boredom was everywhere: it covered me if I didn’t keep moving. But there was nothing to escape from or to. There was nothing to do but force the hands of time by drinking. I told the hours by the number of bottles I drank. No one talked to me in the bars, and why should they? Did I want them to? I walked through churches, playing the tourist. Sitting in the pews reading brochures I thought that heaven itself must be deathly dull. I thought the gods themselves must be bored half to death by having to exist for all eternity — so bored that they prod us into action when we start to remind them of themselves.