“Taxi! Taxiiiiii!”, I shouted with one hand in the air, the other clutching my suitcase. The tall buildings and the swarm of people crawling the streets like ants surrounded me here in my latest work trip. Two taxis already left without me after I had stopped them, apparently I was not heading for an area where they can easily pick up their next fare. “Yes, where to?” the latest cabby said as he leaned out his window and pulled up next to me. “Thank you” I told him as I got into the taxi without telling him where I was heading, once the door was closed he grumbled as we got on our way.
“Water. Water everywhere, and yet, not a drop to drink.”. I thought to myself as I put a glass of cold beer to my lips and looked over the sprawling skyline, dwarfed only by the stars above it. I've heard it said, that when you go to an island you should not expect to find anything that you do not bring with you. Yet, what was I looking for anyway? Being more than busy enough with work, I would not have much time or energy to see the sights, let alone find some Holy Grail.
“Take a look at that view!” I said as I looked over the sea. The magnificent thirty, fifty, hundred story towers built by enterprising people. All those people, they came from everywhere to all the way over here. They came here empty-handed, they came in search of something. What did they expect to find? Was it freedom from bondage, from want, from tyranny? To be allowed to worship whom they choose, to pursue a happiness of their own definition? Relief from taxation, escape from an old, crumbling world where opportunity was stifled by regulation?
What fools. Didn't they know that no man is an island? We must all be beholden unto our brothers. You have to serve somebody, we are all our brothers’ keepers. They cannot find anything here, having brought nothing. And yet, their defiant towers stand tall and proud. “No”, these ghosts say. We are not our brothers’ jailers. We make associations of our own volition, we will not be bound. Look there, in the sea. There is our man-island, standing alone, arm raised defiantly. We came here with hope and we found our freedom.
 |
| Excuse me miss, you need a permit to have an open flame in this area... |
