"We'd now reached the stage familiar to all you seasoned travellers where one city starts looking pretty much like another. You know how it is; first time away from home, you start off thinking how wonderfully different everything is - gods, you say to yourself, in these parts they roof their cattle-stalls with osiers and have an entirely different way of lacing their boots, isn't this incredible? And after a while, once you've trudged far enough and seen enough of the cities of mortal men, you tend only to notice the similarities, the basic shapes that are common to all human settlements - here's the city gate, here's the square, here's the well, here's the palace wall, big deal. I don't know if either way of seeing things is right, or better than the other, although you could say that since the latter view comes with age and experience, it ought to be wiser and therefore more valid. But I don't know. Don't care much either." Tom Holt, Olympiad
I don't intend for this passage to be indicative of the way I'm feeling (I see and appreciate new things everyday), but I came across it in the book I'm reading* and it definitely struck a chord and got me thinking about differences and sames, and how we choose to focus on one or the other and to what degree that can – well, suffisive to say, it made me think.
|