Lehal Library

THE BACKGROUND OF LIFE As a child, I was not often concerned with what school teachers had to say. Instead, I'd be more fascinated with an insect walking across my table or what the other children were doing or thinking. I often had my eyes gazing out the window, letting my mind run wild with the infinite possibilities of what could happen at any given moment. Perhaps an asteroid could hit the Earth, or what if everyone suddenly developed superpowers, or I'd consider what it would be like flying amongst a flock of birds I saw. I grew up with adults telling me that I wasn't 'academic', but the truth is, I wasn't interested in surface-level conversations that had no meaning to what was happening around me in the present moment; I was more concerned with the background of life rather than the foreground. For example, I'd keenly notice the shapes of clouds or count how many trees were in a field, or more notably, I'd notice the impression a person gave me long before seeing what they were doing or what they were saying. When I did pay 'proper' academic attention, it would be in subjects such as science or art; science which promised some explanation to the mysteries of life, and art which let me undertake activities without another odd intellectual lesson to regurgitate. Alas, this is the purity of a child's mind. Now here we are, older, buying books and guides trying to figure out something so natural and straightforward; how to separate consciousness from the body.