Fifth Note to “Laila”

All we have is experience and intuition to rely on. And what experience and intuition tells us is that what follows and proceeds the memory and trauma is a long and arduous process and method to overcome the memory and trauma and to transcend it, which of course consists of travel, dabbling in government, getting married, reflection and thought, and ultimately watching Rome decline and collapse from afar. Some of the craziest people also assess and analyze things through analogical reasoning and psychoanalysis. In a sense, history repeats itself. The present is a subconscious and unconscious repetition of the past, with the same futile quest for complete satisfaction at the heart of it. And given that we can fast forward it all through experience, intuition, analogical reasoning, and psychoanalysis, it is perhaps time to retire and withdraw to a beach in Morocco.