For most of my life, when I was still a scrawny little runt, people have been taken the piss out of me. I wish they were still around to save me from having to go to the toilet two or three times during the night, as I always have trouble getting back to sleep.
Often I grab a book and read until my eyes fall shut again, but I don't make the mistake of starting a big book. Instead, I pick up a volume of W. Somerset Maugham's short stories which I can read and read again, each time revealing a little bit more. One of my favourites is "The Lotus Eater":
"Most people, the vast majority in fact, lead the lives that circumstances have thrust upon them, and though some repine, looking upon themselves as round pegs in square holes, and think that if things had been different they might have made a much better showing, the greater part accept their lot, if not with serenity, at all events with resignation. They are like train-cars travelling forever on the selfsame rails. They go backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, inevitably, till they can go no longer and then are sold as scrap-iron. It is not often that you find a man who has boldly taken the course of his life into his own hands. When you do, it is worth while having a good look at him.
That was why I was curious to meet Thomas Wilson. It was an interesting and a bold thing he had done. Of course the end was not yet and until the experiment was concluded it was impossible to call it successful. But from what I had heard it seemed he must be an odd sort of fellow and I thought I should like to know him. I had been told he was reserved, but I had a notion that with patience and tact I could persuade him to confide in me. I wanted to hear the facts from his own lips. People exaggerate, they love to romanticize, and I was quite prepared to discover that his story was not nearly so singular as I had been led to believe."
Are your eyes still wide open? Okay then, continue to read here.
