A LUCILIUS PARABLE: CHANGE OF SCENERY

May 14th, 2018

When Lucilius was 170 years old, he was living in a cave, meditating for 15 hours a day. He had been at this practice for many years and was perfectly content, finding the exploration from that seat unending and expanding.

One day, while Lucilius was meditating, two figures entered his cave. They were clad in black armor made from interlocking titanium plates. Their helmets shown only as black mirrors curved before their unseen faces. In unison they approached Lucilius and as he opened his eyes to greet them, they hoisted him up by his arms and dragged him out of his cave. 

He was thrown in the back of a small armored craft where he stayed as the figures loaded into the cockpit and the craft ascended. 

After some time, the craft landed and Lucilius was taken from the holding bay. The craft was in a building now and Lucilius was lead through a series of halls until he was guided into a large room. It was a courtroom of sorts from what Lucilius could tell. But he had been at his practice of meditation for so long that he no longer knew the language, nor indeed how people communicated since the entire proceeding appeared to happen in absolute silence. The figure central in the room, whom Lucilius thought might be a judge of some sort, wore a similar helmet that curved like a black mirror before the person’s face. The figure lifted an iron gavel, dropped it quickly, and the same figures who had brought Lucilius pulled him away from the room and lead him back to the craft in which they’d brought him.

Lucilius could feel the small pressure of lifting off and then again as the craft accelerated away, and after some time again, they landed and took Lucilius from the holding bay. They had landed atop a massive compound with no windows or distinguishing marks of any kind. All Lucilius could make out about the building before they entered was that it seemed to be made in a repetitive manner with the same large basic structure, so that the building could grow infinitely, if only another like piece was added to it’s sprawling configuration.

Inside, Lucilius was led down a long hall lined with door after door. None had windows, only a small number affixed in the center. And it was silent. Lucilius could hear nothing aside from the light foot falls of himself and the figures guiding him. They slowed and stopped before a door which opened with a hiss, and silently swung wide as if by a careful and invisible hand. The figures pushed Lucilius into the small cell and behind him the door swiftly swung shut and clicked. 

Lucilius looked at the four walls and smiled. He sat in the center and was positioning himself when an unseen panel in one of the walls opened and a bowl of steaming vegetables emerged on a retractable shelf. 

Lucilius ate the delicious food, looking at the perfect craftsmanship of the surfaces of his cell. He placed the bowl back on the board, which retreated back into the wall and vanished as the panel replaced itself.

He settled down in his posture, smiled, and began to meditate once more.

120 years prior to this, Lucilius was filled with compassion for a woman who was miserable having been forced to wait an additional 5 minutes in a waiting room. The day preceding this miserable existence, Lucilius had seen the same woman sitting in much the same way in a cafe, doing nothing.