The Truth About Life, Universe, and Everything

Read at your own risk!

Aura Wilming I like your thoughts. About one year ago I happened to think about the relativity of what is the truth. As a big fan of The Matrix and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy, I have mixed these two together.

Dear reader, when you finish reading this story, your life might not be ever same again. You may find out you have lived all of your life in illusion. You will know the truth, but you might find it unsatisfactory or rather disturbing. This is your last chance to stop reading and live in the world as you knew it. Proceed at your own risk!

Last spring I spent some time volunteering to renovate the beautiful building of old train station. During my stay, there were a few other volunteers stopping by for couple days or weeks. To have some fun I created a little game for newcomers.

It was called

The Secret of the Train Station

The evening they arrived they received a personal welcome letter.

“Dear wanderer, welcome to the Zbiroh’s Train Station. As it was built more than 100 years ago it hides many secrets. During your stay, you might discover some of them. …..”

Then they were given a clue in a form of words riddle to find their keys. And the first task to figure out which doors they can open.

I had a plan to make some riddle/story for each significant area in the building. Sadly I did not get to realize that.

But one day inspired by my current thoughts and Katharine’s beautiful smile I did make a short extension to the plot.

To build up the tension, the note in the box with keys included a place to look for another task the next morning.

There was another letter with a simple message: “Follow the white rabbit”.

I did cut a little playboy rabbit shape from a white paper and stick it on my t-shirt sleeve.

It took maybe 2 hours after she did read the message until she noticed the rabbit. Then she finally did and I asked her to come with me to the attic, where we had a little music stage area.

I took 2 envelopes from my pocket. One with a red mark, the other with a blue one.

“I have two envelopes. You can choose to open only one of them. If you open the red envelope, you will get to know the truth about the world, universe, and everything. But I have to warn you, even if you don’t like it, you will have to live with it for the rest of your life. If you open the blue ….”

“I want the red one”, she said without hesitation …

“Are you sure? There is no going back!”

She nodded.

She opened the envelope. I enjoyed watching her reaction as she was holding a blank sheet of paper in her hands. She turned it twice and confused looked at me.

“The truth is, there is no truth”, I said, “there is only your perception of reality. It’s only up to you what you make out of your life.”

There is no truth, there is only your perception of reality.

(In case you wonder what was in the blue envelope. There was also a blank sheet of paper. And I had no prepared explanation for that as I knew she will pick up the red one.)