Contrary creatures that we are, we like to think our innermost thoughts are unique to us, and yet we want confirmation, too. It can thus be unnerving and exhilarating to discover our private musings expressed in someone else's words. I had this uncanny sensation in 1997 when I was flipping through a magazine and stumbled on the following passage:
"I was walking through a pine forest, returning to my hut along a narrow path trodden into the steep slope of the hillside. I struggled forward carrying a blue plastic bucket filled with fresh water that I had just collected from a source at the upper end of the valley. I was then suddenly brought to a halt by the upsurge of the sheer mystery of everything. I was as though I were lifted up onto the crest of a shivering wave which abruptly swelled from the ocean that was life itself. How is it that people can be unaware of this most obvious question? I asked myself. How can anyone pass their life without responding to it?"
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