Chapters (33)
"The truth is not what you see when you look around. The truth is what you don't see. The truth is that you don't see men living the way they want to. You don't see them living naturally. Instead, they live their lives as they are told to. They live vicariously through this false spirituality never having to take responsibility for their own existence so long as they believe and are forgiven. If that is not a sin I don't know what is.
"The most frustrating thing is that we can do nothing for them, even though we know and live the truth. No matter how loud we scream, they cannot hear us. You want to grab hold of the bars and rattle the cages that hold them until they will listen, but when you do, you come away with only handfuls of ether. In the end, you realize there is nothing you can do. It's chasing ghosts. It's killing a legend, and how do you kill a legend? You don't. You can only replace it."
1 Today, the Saint Gobain is one of the largest companies in Europe with annual revenue of 40 Billion Euros.
2nd NOTEBOOK
"But why should not every individual man have existed more than once upon this world?"
G.E. Lessing, The Education of the Human Race, 1778
11
My pulse quickened when the wheels barked against the runway. The stewardess announced in four languages that it was 3:00 p.m. local time. Grey clouds and drizzle hung low over the city giving this new frontier a dark and foreboding air.
I picked up my rucksack along with the airline issue garment box and made my way through customs without difficulty. Poppy came through right behind me.
We spotted him at the same time as we walked through the sliding glass doors to the damp air outside. He wore a black jacket and hat and stood next to a grey stretch Mercedes Benz sedan holding a white signboard with a black Embe on it.
"That must be for us," I said.
"It's not specifically for us but we can take it. There will be a chauffeur here full time for the next day or so. Several others will be arriving before tomorrow night."
"What's tomorrow night?"
"That's when it begins," she said, closing the door.