The Book of Everything: An Experiment

There once was a book called The Book of Everything. It was actually an unpublished manuscript, very long and full of many characters, more than War and Peace. It was someone's life work. The manuscript was found in a box in the damp basement of an abandoned house in Normal, Illinois. But every page had been torn to pieces. Here is the experiment: What do the pieces say?

*Add a bit of text:* Text from anywhere is eligible, as long as it could potentially fit on a scrap of 8 1/2 X 11" paper. If you didn't write it, please attribute the source or quote it as dialogue. (Example: "These are the times that try men's souls," Thomas Paine said.) Feel free to make your contributions anonymous.

monday, august 12

“As I grew older I became increasingly to feel that my working life should be virtually synonymous with living my life as I wanted, irrespective of whether I was doing any work.” -Geoff Dyer
15:42

wednesday, july 10

"That closet looks big enough to hold a body," the woman said, poking her head into the musty space. I didn't say anything for a moment, but wondered how much trouble I was willing to go through to sublet my apartment. Would a body in the closet jeopardize my security deposit?
20:49

sunday, june 30

There may be nothing new under the sun, but what of us whose sun has yet to rise? I turn around and look to see the past wash away, memories faded and eroded by the tides of time -- and Lake Michigan. I turn back and face a future, unknown, undiscovered, in a world with seemingly nothing left to find, nothing left to learn, nothing left to experience that has never been experienced before.

Now I understand Jimmy Buffett: "Yes I am a pirate / 200 years too late / the cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder / I'm an over-40 victim of fate / arriving too late, arriving too late..."

I feel so angry, jaded and confused, as if the world just played a joke on me. It doesn't seem right, to lead us on so long, and then wipe away hopes we had so strong.

The closer I get to the starting line of life, "real" life, the more I see that this is not a sprint, but a marathon -- with hurdles. Hurdles I wasn't told of as I prepared, raced on a track without clear-cut directions. And the problem is I'm racing against the whole world.

Cliched dreams. You've heard me say it before. "All I want to do is travel around, take pictures, meet cool people and write about it. I have the most cliched dreams in the world." Maybe so, I think now, maybe so.

But it doesn't matter if I have cliched dreams. I just vow I won't be a cliched dreamer.

"Another thousand years have come and gone, take my hand, we're moving on..."
04:09

wednesday, june 12

She definitely didn't enjoy that mix cd. How rare is a good mix? You'd be surprised.
18:38

friday, june 7

cut the rope in one swift snip
08:23

monday, june 3

Duckling earned his nickname on the school playground. He'd always beg to play with the older kids, and no matter how hard they tried to ditch him, he tagged along.
00:09

friday, may 24

He sipped his tea and set down his newspaper. Everything was wrong.
22:21