‘How odd!’ she said. ‘And why should I let you come in and snoop around, you strange lad?’
‘I just want to learn more about modern man, madam. I understand it is a strange request, but it would actually mean the world to me. It will only take a few minutes, I promise.’
She laughed.
‘Come in, strange man, before somebody sees you.’
Somewhat nervous I followed the fairly decorated middle aged woman, dressed in grey and beige. As if colours were forbidden or deeply disliked in her reality. We passed an interesting arch. It seemed to be built out of a million little pieces, brought together through lots of attention, time, and dedication. I marveled at this amazing sight, on the left and right and high above my head, but the lady grabbed my hand and swiftly guided me into another space.
The beauty of nature appeared before my eyes. I walked towards it, overwhelmed by this mesmerizing scene, but then – suddenly – I was harshly stopped by an invisible wall. The lady chuckled, which I did not understand. However, my curiosity made me forget about it.

I touched the invisible wall. I’d never seen anything like it, but there must have been a reason for people to separate themselves from nature. Maybe they were afraid of its power, I figured. That would explain it. Maybe they decided to admire it from a distance? This I could understand, because I had faced the merciless side of nature many times. However, it seemed a bit naïve to believe that nature could be shut out. If it wanted to harm, it would certainly not be held back by these walls…
‘Are you coming or what?’ the lady asked impatiently.
‘Why do you use this to shut out nature?’ I asked, pointing at the transparant wall. ‘Do you really think it will work?’
She looked at me with a sneer. ‘That is a window, you foolish man.’
‘A window…’ I repeated. ‘I have never heard of a window…’
‘Well, we need windows. And doors,’ she said. ‘First of all: nature is dirty and ruthless, we must protect ourselves. Secondly: walls and doors provide safety, because they keep the wrong kind of people away.’
I looked up, surprised to notice a colourful roof. So she does like colour, I pondered. It was a peculiar sight, that fascinated me, and I kept gazing at it.
‘What is the wrong kind of people?’ I asked. ‘And why do you want people to stay away?’
‘Why? Well, I’ll tell you why.’ she said and lowered her voice as if those ‘wrong kind of people’ were listening in on us. ‘You can’t trust people. They lie, hurt, steal and even kill. They can be very dangerous.’
‘Animals can be just like that, madame, it’s in their nature. Why would you expect anything else?’
‘Because the world has changed and we are intelligent animals, but not all of us I’ll tell you. Therefore we need to protect ourselves.’
I shrugged my shoulders and pointed at the coloured roof.
‘This I understand, because this is very useful when it rains.’
She smiled, but I recognized no pleasure or beauty in her inanimate smile. It made me quite sad and I decided to ask her another question.
‘Why did you paint this?’
She looked up. ‘The ceiling?’
‘The ceiling,’ I repeated carefully.
‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’ she asked. ‘I must admit I don’t look at it a lot, but when I do I really enjoy it. Without the paint it would be all white and boring. How awful is that?’
‘But what is the reason for painting it? Isn’t it enough that it shelters you from rain?’
‘It looks nice this way,’ she said. ‘What more reason do I need?’
She took my hand and we passed a beautiful door. I recognized lots of little stars on this door. I was familiar with stars, because I had often seen stars. Never before had I noticed them on doors, though. I looked around and noticed more doors. They divided the rather large space into smaller spaces and I didn’t know why. I asked the lady about it, but that seemed to make her forget about the manners and decency she spoke of with such intensity. I felt sorry immediately, but it was too late. She treated me like a fool and her words – no, the way she said them – agonized me much.
‘Privacy, you idiot!’ she shouted as she rolled her eyes.
‘Pri…what…?’ I mumbled.
I stood tall and smiled polite, as if her harsh reply did not affect me a bit.
‘Pri-va-cy,’ she repeated, deviding the word firmly into smaller pieces, like she did with the house.
When she looked at my face she sighed and continued: ‘We all need our privacy, dear. Because it’s normal! It would be rather strange if we would throw our things in a room and slept on top of each other.’
She smiled vaguely.
‘We need our own stuff and our own space,’ she went on. ‘Besides, the rooms serve different purposes and therefore require different accessories. This, for instance, is the living room. We sit here to talk, read or watch television.’
‘I never had my own room,’ I said. ‘Or a house…’
‘You poor man…’ she replied.
‘I never felt poor,’ I said, ignorant of her sarcasm. ‘We share our few possessions and it doesn’t bother me at all. It makes things easy, actually. If you do not own things, you have much less to protect. We never had secrets and we didn’t feel lonely like modern people do.’
‘Well, times change,’ the lady muttered. ‘And all those secrects and anxiety provides us with a whole lot of very pleasant television shows to pass the time, I tell you.’
‘What is television and why do you want time to pass?’
She sighed and I was aware of her frustration. I knew it was me, causing her to feel this way, but what could I say? I could not make sense of almost anything she told me.

‘I guess you are right, madam,’ I finally whispered. ‘Times do change. But don’t you feel trapped? I mean, first you separate yourself from other people and from nature and then you imprison yourself in an even smaller space…’
‘I never really thought about it that way,’ she said.
‘What are these?’ I asked, pointing at two unusual objects. ‘They are made of tree, aren’t they? Trees belong outside, don’t they? Did you kill a tree, madam?’
‘These are chairs!’
‘Chairs?’
‘They are made to sit in,’ she said. ‘Otherwise we would all sit on the floor. I pray I do not need to explain why that would be utterly inappropriate.’
‘Well…’ I looked away.
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, were you raised by wolves in a forest dear lad?’
She looked at the ceiling as if she expected to find an explaination there for my obvious stupidity. It made me extremely uncomfortable. Apparently I still had a lot to learn about modern people, but I didn’t know if I really wanted to anymore. I never needed any of this stuff, these… accessories and the rules that go with them; that complicated everything, though these people seem to believe that they made life easy and pleasant.
‘Are you hungry?’ the lady asked. ‘There is plenty of food to eat in the kitchen.’
She removed some imaginary dirt from her beige pants. ‘The maid just went to the store and bought lots of delicious things!’
I am not quite sure how to explain this to you, kind reader, but at this very moment I felt completely lost. I mean COMPLETELY. I did not know what a ‘kitchen’, ‘store’ or ‘maid’ was, and why this ‘maid’ was sent to this ‘store’ to get food. Wasn’t there food here, all around? I’d seen almond trees, figues, apple trees and much more while walking about. I felt a little dizzy trying to make sense of it all.
‘S-sorry madam, I have to go now,’ I stammered. ‘I appreciate your hospitality.’
She nodded. ‘You odd little lad…’
I just smiled like a bonehead, thanked her again, and left.

I did learn a lot about this modern lifestyle, through my conversation with this lady and other modern people, and it was great to swap insights. They do seem to share some strange habits and beliefs, though, and I cannot ignore the sadness I feel when I observe these people. My world is so terribly different, and I don’t pretend to know it all, but the people I know… they don’t have invisible walls, coloured roofs, parts-of-tree-for-sitting and small prison-like spaces to keep them warm and orderly. There’s no need to. There is plenty they do not have, certainly and luckily; they feel blessed and warm and rich despite it. And I may not be familiar with ‘chairs’, ‘maids’, ‘ceilings’ and ‘windows’ and all of that, but I do know one thing: seperating oneself from nature is more harmful than nature can ever be. If you do not believe me, please visit this lady. She will try to fool you (they all do) but you will see it in her eyes. To be cut off from nature is to be cut off from yourself. Nothing can hide that pain.