yume bitsu | "into the hole" | auspicious winds | 2000
(turn this one up and listen when you've nothing else to do.)
the seventh man fell quiet, and turned his gaze upon each of the others, and no one spoke, or moved, or even seemed to breathe. all were waiting for the rest of the story. outside the wind had fallen and nothing stirred.–haruki murakami, the seventh man, 1996; as heard on pri's selected shorts podcast, 01/17-23/2009
the seventh man brought his hand to his collar once again in search of words. "they tell us that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. but i don't believe that," he said. and then a moment later he added, "oh, there is fear alright; the fear is there. it comes to us in many forms at different times and overwhelms us. but the most frightening thing we can do at such times is to turn our backs on it, to close our eyes. for then we take the most precious thing inside us and we surrender it to something else. in my case, that something was – the wave."
