OUR PASSION FOR CONTINUITY

Every acquaintance was once unfamiliar. Silence precedes noise. In other words, emptiness reigns before the crowd gathers. A road does not go somewhere or come from somewhere; it simply exists. It can be traveled in either direction. The road remains the same; it is the traveler who changes.

No matter how far a person progresses, they are always behind what they wish to reach. As long as desires persist, so does the journey. People live in pursuit of "more"—better, greater, higher—driven by an endless ambition. Yet, while striving for the future, they fail to realize that they are at least ahead of what they left behind.

Years pass by. Regardless of where we are or how we move forward, we are always too slow for some and too fast for others. Only time remains constant. It is neither fast nor slow. Amidst the chaos, it flows steadily in its own way, never faltering.

Wherever a person stands, they are always "opposite" someone. They are always alongside someone, and simultaneously against someone. Even when they are beside someone, they are also opposing them.

There is no perpetual joy, just as there is no perpetual sorrow.

There is no constant success, just as there is no constant failure.

In The Moments of Humanity (Die Sternstunden der Menschheit), Stefan Zweig highlights the relationship between the routine and continuous aspects of life and those rare, shining moments when a person’s star truly ascends. Zweig writes:

"No artist is an artist for the full twenty-four hours of their daily life; everything substantial and lasting that they achieve happens in those rare moments of inspiration. The same holds true for history, which we admire as the greatest poet and dramatist of all time—it too is not continuously creative. As Goethe observed in reverent awe, in 'the mysterious workshop of God,' history experiences a multitude of trivial and ordinary events. In history, just as in every area of life and art, magnificent and unforgettable moments are rare. For a genius to emerge, millions of people must pass through history; countless futile hours must elapse before an event that marks humanity's shining moment in history takes place.

This gathering of a pivotal moment, an epoch-making decision condensed into a single date, a single hour, often even a single minute, is rare. Such dramatic accumulations, such fateful turning points, are uncommon both in the lives of individuals and in the course of history. Every tension requires a period of preparation, and every true event needs a process of development."