(Hi – I’m still having a break from answering comments. A bit otherwise engaged! More in a day or two).
Timothy was exceedingly rich. He hadn’t simply become rich by inheriting riches from his father, although that was a good half of it. He had become doubly rich through hard work. He was a businessman of unbridled talent and success. Hence his riches.
He lived in a beautiful house with a spacious garden, and although he employed a professional gardener to come in once a week, he enjoyed gardening himself and did a great deal of it when time allowed.
He was also interested in breeding tropical fish, and hence he had a good number of significantly large aquariums in tasteful places around his house. Of course when we say “house” we mean it was more than a house; it was a mansion; a manor; a regal grange.
When Timothy hit forty he thought, “Why am I working so hard? I have all this money, so how much more do I need? I have many interests. Why don’t I pursue them? After all there’s enough money to live more than comfortably for the rest of my life and longer.”
So that’s what he did.
He abandoned work and took to travel! He went to Africa, Europe, Asia. He photographed so many things of history, so many scenes. When he needed a break he would come home and unwind in the garden. In the evenings he would view with pleasure the places he had been. Then it was back into travel!
It was while he was in Verona in Italy. He was walking the city walls, and was high up and passing the Basilica of St. Zeno. He stopped. He thought of something. He burst into tears.
It was all a waste of time; it was all meaningless, because he had no one to tell his adventures to. There was no one to share things with.
That is truly sad.
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“Vanity of vanities; all is vanities.” But to be fair, it might be kind of nice to live in a regal grange.
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And, I was hit with a tide of sadness, not only for our protagonist, but also at seeing that image of Verona, because I don’t think I will ever pass that way again.
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PS Why doesn’t Timothy start a blog?
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Perhaps the beginning of a romance novel? He could rescue a damsel in distress as she trips on her flip flops and nearly falls off the wall. Then of course it’s love at first sight, though I imagine there will be a terrible misunderstanding at some point. And a happy ending to top it off. I’m choosing to view this one optimistically.
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An excellent plot – except I think nearly every writer used it!
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In the postmodern era when reins of human evolutionary carvan are firmly in the hands of Facebook and Instagram, the protagonist’s self-imposed desolation is pathetic.
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So very sad, Bruce. Everyone needs at least one person in their lives.
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Why? He could hit the social media and tell the whole world and some, about his adventures. Just a # tripfever would have people poring over his pictures, dying to comment.
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