Two Moons
Can an audiobook serve as meditation tool? Especially when combined with running under a rainbow on a brisk morning? How does one travel to parallel reality, and through time, (re)discovering universal truths? Is hindsight bias actively reshaping our memories? And where does that leave life-long relationships?
THINK. Three parts of Haruki Murakami's '1Q84' is a thick, 1,300+ pages volume. An audiobook is 45 hours long. Both seem to require a near-impossible dose of concentration. In the world of micro-reads and content kept under 30 seconds, has such form moved beyond point of no(body's) interest?
I am finding Murakami's novels deeply interesting. Set in a culture that is very different than mine (yet somehow relatable), slow to moderately paced, contain a subtle, somewhat super-natural element. In the main, the world of the novel is alike ours. There is however always a small crack in the surface of reality, through which a spiritual, fantastic elements leak into our universe.
In '1Q84', two main characters, spiritually connected Aomame and Tengu, seem to travel across to a parallel reality, seeking to find each other after 20 years of separation. On the surface, we witness their everyday lives - a fitness instructor and a math teacher. A layer below lies a rebel religious-sect escapee and an aspiring novelist. As story unfolds, they both encounter characters and events slightly out of this world. They move across from 1984 to 1Q, a place with two moons.
The meditative mood is not only enhanced by a meticulous, slow narrative that pivots between two main characters, but also the way that voice actors read the story. It feels soothing, made me stop and reflect on the spot. And yes, there have been tens of long dog walks and car drives involved!
Also, I found some metaphors extremely compelling. Little People, a magical folk that exist on a spiritual plane just beyond our sight, a cat whisker away from intruding our peace. An imminent and unsettling force beyond rational comprehension. Quietly menacing, silently threatening, always watching. Morally ambiguous, unpredictable and somewhat mystical. Giving you goosebumps with every appearance.
Town of Cats is a place of reverse belonging. There is an undertone of oppression, surveillance, silent threat. People are absent, and the town fills with cats role-playing humans. At the same time, this is a place where one can seal oneself off in solitude, longing and inner maze. Be somewhere but be nowhere at the same time. Vanish.
Two Moons refer to slivers of perception only accessible to some. Sometimes one needs to look away to catch a glimpse of the real world in a corner of the eye. Our sight, as thorough as we tend to believe, is not letting us notice things that are clearly present yet remain hidden. Have you ever seen a photo of the Milky Way on a clear night? It is out there 100% of the time, during a day too. It is just the light polluting our vision, not letting us notice. What if this is true for our perception of memory, history, relationships? Are we getting blinded by the lights?
FEEL. My happiness is an ecosystem. When my children and partner are doing well, so do I. As my wife recently referred, you are only as happy as your least happy special person. That rings so true. Thankfully, I have numerous reasons for pride. But this is not public gratitude journaling.
Instead, I wanted to share how joy stems from everyday, small situations. How waiting to finish watching 'The Avengers' got me through a busy week of work and flight delays last week. How I rather wanted to pay attention to my children collectively singing 40 songs from 'Epic the Musical', rather than the musical instead (even though it is darn good!). Or how I could nearly see my wife smiling and glowing on her way back from her classes with students - even though I only heard her voice on the phone.
Small joys matter. Seek them out.
DO. I feel so lucky to be a citizen of the world. Sharing time between Dublin and London, every time I travel to an office in the City, and happen to have a free evening, I look for some last-minute affordable tickets to one of West End shows. Credit to my daughter, she introduced our entire family to an emotional world of musical theatre, and now the urge is irresistible.
I was breathing the culture in! Three nights and three shows: a play (Stranger Things), a musical (Back to the Future) and a concert (ABBA Voyage), all more than worth its while. I was amazed how well contemporary theatre can be arranged in a true multi-media fashion: with stage movement, decorations, visualisations, intertextual narrative and actors walking the aisles. I (re)discovered the power of nostalgia and how we rarely have an accurate vision of the future. Finally, I experienced the technology of the future bringing the history to life on stage, despite time that had passed, in near flesh and blood of holograms.
We all sometimes cross over parallel universes and travel in time - mostly within our own minds. In parallel, hindsight bias causes one to distort reality by realigning one's memories of events to fit new information. Which history is true, then? What happened? How we remembered it happened? Or how our memory changed as we thought about what happened?
I will ask the Little People when I see them under Two Moons.
