I enter library with a full package. By full package I mean of a heart yearning for something to absorb. I have Bacon in my hand. I have a friend to talk. I have studysouls to observe. I have surplus to read. I sit in a chair and start Bacon to read: The Essays Of Bacon. Above all, I have music to muse myself. Greater than less, I have wisdom to gain. Moreover, I have mind to ramble; a thought to shatter; a soul to breath; a body to move. By more than more, I have emptiness to write.
A Library, a Bacon in hand and a friend to talk is the virtue for my existence. Library is place where a martyred soul can breath, a mind to glow and a thought to organize. It is a place where every individual inspired from the script of great writers, leaders, philosophers etc. It is a place where words find its way to enter your mind just like water in the hills find its way to flow.
Library and history have deep relation: The relation of people. The only thing I observe in the library are people. Every page in a book is a face of individual reveal something old in a new shape. There is more to learn from people than books. Indeed, books are best way of consuming it all. Don’t confuse yourself; just try to understand. Books are the stories of unrecognized faces which open the mystery of known faces.
I love the smell of old pages and their desolated stories. I feel the pain. I feel the joy. I try to understand and imagine their tales of woe. Books are living stories, not the dead one. I am addicted to it. Kafka rightly says that “books are a narcotic.”
“You shall read that we are commanded to forgive our enemies, but you will never read that we are commanded to forgive our friends,” says Bacon in his essay Of Revenge. I am an inspired literary buddy of him. I recently start his book of essays. All I learn is through his writing which works as a candle in dark for me.
Bacon for me is a literary genius. Today I am directly expose to study Bacon and gain insights of his knowledge. A company which he granted me is unforgettable. I will cherish his ideas throughout my life. Every new page of his book reveal something fascinating. Indeed, he will be remember for a reason in a history. I am more concerned to his writing rather than his life because I don’t know a bit of it. I want to know; I will.
From where the idea of a friend came into existence? Who called whom friend? What is it? Who describe it? More than all questions, how to define and spot it? These are simple yet complex questions to deal. No one think of it; but, everyone pass through it.
Book is a friend. Bacon is a friend. Essay is a friend. Human is a friend. All of these I found in library. Yes, in library. We all have friends. We are delighted in their company. Bacon in his essay Of Friendship quote Nietzsche: “Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.”
Are you a wild beast or a god?
What do you think of a friend? Which idea of a friend is most fascinating for you? We all have a need of belonging. We all are connected in one or another way. According to me, anything which give comfortable company is your friend. It can be a book, diary, story, human and even your thoughts.
I am a library. I am Bacon. I am a friend.
Saad Ul Haq
