The Tea Room

A small boy is sitting in a chair at a cinema, watching a film. He is totally consumed by the film, forgetting all about the world outside the film. In fact, this boy is somewhat special, because he is even forgetting there is a world outside the film.

The film is kind of scary, and the boy should not really be watching it at all; especially not on his own. There are soldiers killing other soldiers on the film. There are soldiers chasing women and children to kill or torture them. There are many other people harming other people and kids in many different ways. The film just goes on, non-stop, seemingly for ever. The boy has forgotten all about his own world, where there is peace and love and harmony, and nothing like this ever happens. To him, all that exist is the film.

Then, by chance the boy%rsquos eyes are drawn to the border-line of the film image at the cinema screen. He notices that the world of the film suddenly ends. He notices there is a world outside the film. This is even scarier to him. Where is he in this world? Is there a solider holding a gun to the back of his head, ready to fire? The boy thinks, %ldquoNo this is just too scary! I don%rsquot dare to look! Let%rsquos just forget about that border and focus on the film!%rdquo And he turns his eyes in another direction %ndash and there is another border-line. He becomes very frightened again, but yet not as frightened as the first time.

The boy starts to think. %ldquoIf there is a world outside the film, it%rsquos maybe not scary at all. Why should it be?%rdquo A shadow of a shadow of a memory of the better world where he actually lives reaches his mind and he starts to feel better. Still, he is too frightened to turn his head around to se what is really there. He starts to play with the border-line and as time goes by he becomes braver and braver. %ldquoIf I look, only very fast, just a little bit outside the border-line, what will happen? What will happen if I focus on the middle of the screen and try to perceive what is at the edges of my perception? If I dare to focus on a spot just outside the border-line, what will I perceive?

This boy is still playing with the border-line. Eventually he will become accustomed to the idea of the world outside the film and then he will be brave enough to just stand up and walk out of the cinema, but he has not accomplished that yet.