New Beginnings

New beginnings are a tricky thing.
Every beginning of the new has its fine print, and it usually pertains to the end of the old. A jump has to be made – but what if one is left at the station, with both trains already departed? Is the risk worth it?

I thought about this as the plane gained altitude. Barely awake, I peered into the window, where the silver wing brushed apart the thick fog. A few lights flashed in the distance, and I thought finally we were at the altitude of other planes. But the lights did not move. Rising over the fog, I saw they were the tips of skyscrapers, blinking as lost ships within the white cloud sea. Like islands, they stood there, tips pointed upwards. Then they disappeared. I doubt anyone else saw.

So. Prague.
Coming from the airport, the college pattywagon moved forward along the roads into the city. Overvalued kids flashed their overpriced cameras and talked the talk of a tourist. I sat quietly, watching the scenery pass by. Fields covered with snow blurred into the outskirts – deserted mcdonalds and rows of khruchevski apartment buildings. A few aged women and an estranged husband waiting for the tram.

As the bus proceeded, I felt less and less in a new city, and more and more in an old memory. Everything I saw brought back flashbacks to my childhood, and I could not help but feel sad. And I could not fathom why.

Perhaps I felt that I was simply going backwards – retreating into my past. But was this necessarily a bad thing? Is life simply a matter of finding locations for escape that were previously unvisited? And in that case is a new beginning simply a new shell for our old complexes?

The city gave me no answers. But it gave me questions, and for that I am already grateful.

Stay in tune.