I’m currently reading Dead Souls, a book written by Nikolai Gogol. In the book there is a section where our protagonist encounters a gruff man, burly and boisterous, who receives him in his home to listen to his request. The main character, Chichikov, analyzes the man’s room and finds it to be an exact replica of the man himself. Gigantic chairs and tables, tapestries the size of a mammoth, plates as wide as the Amazon River. He concludes by saying that the room screamed I am me! This is a recurring theme in the book as he encounters more men who build a temple out of their home to praise their own vices. That’s when I realized something…
I’ve always been very quiet at meetings, always analyzing, always hypothesizing. I enjoy listening to others’ ideas and believe in the capacity of others to achieve and succeed. This used to be the case until I unlocked the same vision that Chichikov possesses. Once you see the world in this way you can never go back, and it can result in massive disinterest in the people around you.
Still, it has proven both helpful and entertaining in my everyday life.
Now for an amusing anecdote.
In college I used to see a student from the middle-east, very well dressed in my opinion. He carried himself with a powerful aura of luxury and riches which I was attracted to by preference. As I observed him on the regular, I couldn’t help but notice that a lot of women flocked towards him, especially the Latin women which he was very fond of (I can tell because of his body language). From what I knew these individuals had arranged marriages back home and couldn’t drink in their home country. This didn’t seem to be a problem for him so I kind of put it on the backburner.
One day I observed his Lamborghini Huracan skidding violently into the parking lot and immediately knew that something was wrong. He was jumpy coming into class, his usual neat desk was cluttered and he couldn’t stop fidgeting. His elegant and calm temple was disrupted and I immediately knew, call it divine intuition or wisdom or whatever, but I divined that I wasn’t going to see him for very long.
A few days later he was gone without a trace. I went on with my college life, minding my own business. Then I talked with a friend of mine who was known for gossip. She then told me the full story. The guy did have an arranged marriage and a girl who knew his family took a picture of him with his Latin girlfriend. Immediately his parents recalled him back home.
Way to ruin the fun…
This is a fun anecdote on environmental cues, but it doesn’t remove the fact of its importance and relevance in all fields. A hiker sensing that something is wrong near the mountaintop, a soldier hearing an unknown sound, like Sherlock Holmes observed, “Why didn’t the dog bark?”
To hell with other people’s observations. Make your own connections by using your unique point of view. You were the only one that was built to see what you see. You were given this vision by god so use it not only to amuse yourself like I did in college but to recognize opportunities that only you were supposed to see, to know people before they even utter a word, to build your dream life with wisdom and ease. Deconstruct others’ temples and act on what they don’t even know they will do in the future. It will save you from lots of heartbreak and tragedy and remember…
Gods don’t distrust because they already know.
