walking in darkness

I was talking to a friend today about my last tree hugging experience. He became very interested in the blind folding experience, and said that there is a dark restaurant in Shanghai where people dine in absolute darkness. And some customers say the dark room makes them focus more on the taste of the food.

I haven't eaten in darkness, but walking in darkness is another interesting experience. Not knowing the situation I am in could make me anxious. And I would start to make contingency plans. But one can never plan for change, because change is always faster than plan. Some psychologist study suggested that we are afraid of darkness because we have not overcame the fear human being suffered during ancient times that they might be eaten by beast after dark through. Evolution hasn't help us realize that there is no beast in the civilized world. It's interesting how after living in a civilized word for some twenty years, knowing no beast will eat us, we are sometimes still afraid of darkness.

Kafka gives another explanation. He thinks the thing we are really afraid of is not darkness, but uncertainty. We are afraid of unable to plan ahead and thus loss control. But after living for some twenty years, we should also have noticed that sometimes, the plan just does not work something happened and we lost control and don't know what to do. So maybe it is time we start enjoy not to have a plan sometime, and let our life lead us. Planning is indeed making choices, while making choices indeed means forgo chances. We try to debate and calculate, and try to utilize by choosing the one with the minimal opportunity cost. But life is continuous. The “best” choice you made now is very likely to close a door somewhere later in your life. It sounds depressing, What might sound more depressing is that life is also unrepeatable. I sometimes wish life is an experiment where I can control variables and see the results. But we can't re-live. How we live is just like how we walk in darkness. We do not know where the way lead to. One path we chose will lead us further away from something, and it is difficult to find our way back to the original point. However, most importantly, life is full of surprises. So why don't we give up control and let others lead the way sometime. It might open up a whole different world.

I found when I travel without a travel book, I aways find something out of expectation, be it a witty graffiti on the wall, or a restaurant of great value. While if I travel with a guide, I am basically going through all the touristic places and tick my list. If you want to find the gem in life, let life lead you. You will be surprised what darkness has to offer.