Nirvana
By Ibrahim
I want you to close your eyes. Yes, you sir, so surreptitiously covering your pockets so that I can pull no tricks and you, madam, whose befuddled look suggests insanity on my part. But no, I just want you to close your eyes and step away for a moment, escape for but a second from this miasma of despair, like the books we read and the tales we tell to transport us to that mythical land promised unto us. But this time you can put your Hemingways and your Eliots to one side and just close your eyes.
As the doldrums of incessant light dies down, you notice, for the first time, the deafening silence all around you. The infinite possibility to devise grand schemes and dream the fanciful dreams left untouched. Temptations begin to materialise and for the first time, the mythical land winks elusively from the depths of your imagination. But wait! Don't stir so, madam, for that will only push it away.
Soak up the surroundings from your extremities. Absorb the sunlight streaking across your face, forming chiaroscuros of beauty. The mask of inherent ennui slowly shed as the crisp pavement makes patterns on your bare feet. The banal sounds of ringing phones and honking horns seem now as ballads and with every crescendo and diminuendo you inch ever closer. You smile, sir, as if you sense the destination is close by. It is.
See how the breeze blows across our faces, laughing at our mediocrity? We laugh with it, presenting our imperfections in all their glory. The shackles of self-doubt, of hate and arrogance, slowly fade away at this, leaving us untethered and ready for flight. The smell of freedom is infused with the aroma of Jasmines.
Yes, now you may open your eyes. But I see you hesitate, as if reluctant to abandon the confines of your fantasy. What is it you say? That dreams are better than the cruel reality? You need only to open your eyes and observe. As you squint and your eyes adjust once more, everything becomes clear, translucent; like a film of stained vitriol and pessimism has been removed and you can breathe for the first time in a long time. Where are we, you wonder? We are here; knocking at the gates of Nirvana..
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky… - John Lennon
