Returning to Taipei was strange for me, like coming to a land your meant to see but never know beyond the thin veneer of its existence. I suppose that’s just how quickly I adapt to new environments now, always ready to evolve as needed. It’s been a strength of mine from the start if only because my family was neither here nor there and everywhere at once, always traveling and engaged with amazing adventures that defy explination, but one does not understand their abilities simply because they have them; to do that takes time and reflection, I suppose 37 years is time enough...
I got back to my hostel and received a message from Doriane for a late-night tea session.
“Why not?” I said.
The place she decided to go was really plush, and in the old town docks where all the goods of Taipei used to come and go back in the day. Old and worn, smelling of time and coin. The tea house was so plush It reminded me of some of the places I went with my crazy Italian lover back in New York. I suppose that’s a redundant statement, all Italians are crazy lovers... in any case, that’s where my mind went as we ordered four separate cups of tea, as Doriane and Oliver her partner had invited another friend from Australia, I think.
Now I’ve had my share of crank in life, the caffeine variety especially, but this was on another level. It was not overly powerful like the cups I had in Myanmar, but was instead a flavor profile bonanza. I simply couldn’t believe that so many differences could exist for one leaf, but there we were, Anarchists without borders in a candle-lit room above the old docks, in the Capital city of a nation in exile, sipping tea and conspiring towards the evolution of the species. Life is a real trip for those who live it to the fullest, it would seem... We spoke of global affairs, where to live, what to do if and when things get really bad. Doriane said it was like experiencing a real life round table in Kind Aurthur’s court, we all agreed.
I remember so distinctly asking the universe for two things as a child, and I may have mentioned it before, but it deserves a retelling.
1: I want to live in a science fiction reality.
2: Make me a vessel of destiny.
My father always told me to be careful what I ask for... Why did he say that? Because in life, when you ask, you are infinitely more likely to receive than if you do not. I asked, and here I am, in a science fiction reality that’s getting more so every passing second to the point where I wish it would stop, and I seem to be the focal point upon which the entire multiverse pivots upon, at least that’s what life feels like once you’ve committed yourself to doing the right thing even if it means dying a horrible death or living a life estranged from everyone and everything still inside the matrix.
What are we to do when we find out how powerful we really are? Especially when we’ve been led to believe the opposite, and worse, led towards actual weakness in every corridor available within the system? Well, let me tell you. We are to embrace the suck of self-improvement. Reject the comfort of self-delusion, and rise! We only live this life once after all. It is a waste without equal to assume your life is devoid of meaning or power. So live it up! Challenge the Gods and their laws, and find only the one power, the one rule, and use it as a tool. Eventually you will either be alive as never before, a true fool of the tarot, ready for all that comes, or cowering against the tides of change, curled up into another brick for the wall... So what will it be, oh adventurer?
The choice, is always yours...