Text bellow is from the Chapter 04 of the book “Between Rails and Stars“, when Halimink and Kilehuen express their vision about our world.

As soon as we left, we felt free from the things of the world, even though we were trapped like three doves in a cage.

However, it seemed that it had aroused a feeling in us that took us back to our childhood, as we were embarking on an adventure whose destiny belonged only in our imaginations.

Many thoughts ran through my mind and I believed that it would be no different with my two companions. About an hour had passed since we had left the train station.

Then, little by little, we began to enter the interior. Little light came to us, along the way. However, being inside an old wooden carriage, there were cracks and holes that allowed us to look out. Through these cracks and holes, the light rays began to get stronger as we gained distance.

I had known since the beginning, that we would not climb to any great altitude during the trip; quite the opposite, in fact. We would only gain some altitude at certain points.

While we were having silly chats, we noticed strong light rays entering through the cracks in the wood. About the second or third time since Halimink had asked me if we were arriving at some station I realised that it would take us at least three or four hours to get to the next one.

 “It must be the moon,” I said. Kilehuem objected, claiming that we were in a new moon phase, and that there would be no visible moonlight. It this fact that made us run to the small holes to look and to see where such a force of light was coming from. We were openmouthed, not saying a single word to one another for minutes on-end.

We acted like three children who had just won a telescope and who were testing it for the first time. Then the silence was broken by Halimink.  In a low and contemplative voice, he said: “The stars!”  “How beautiful they are, seen from here! They remind me of home,” Kilehuem remarked.

“It seems that they are like small suns to light and to show us the way.”

“They remind me of my first night at the End of the World, Halimink,” I said.

“I came across the most beautiful sky that I have ever seen in my whole life and I had a distinct impression that I was lying under a  cloak of stars. My fascination was such that I had difficulty in deciding to zip the entrance of the tent.”

“This way is indeed sacred. Take a look Kilehuen, at the alignment of the Orion with the constellations surrounding it,” Halimink said.

At that moment, he looked at me. Even in the low light I could see that his eyes were wet with emotion. Then I felt the train turning to the left. It seemed as if it had started a slight ascent. As we aligned, I had noticed that the train was slightly perpendicular to the ground. The stars seemed to have become our final destination. We were literally traveling between rails and stars.

“It seems as if we’re on a road to the sky,” I told them both; not realizing that in fact, we would have to take, in the next stretch of the journey, a train that would take us metaphorically to the sky.

At that moment, both of them looked at one another and then they hugged one another, as if in a gesture of accomplishment, because they were not far from their purpose. That is, to make the journey through the Sacred Way that still exists in their hearts and in their minds.

As soon as our childhood spirits returned to the concave of our souls, we decided to take the time to talk about some things. There was a question that I needed to answer to quieten my mind, and I had been going crazy wondering whether to ask them about it, for hours.

“I have an important question to ask you, “I said. “What did you think of my world?” They both laughed loudly.

“But where is the fun in this?” I asked. “It is with the utmost seriousness that I ask you this question. I would like to have an opinion about what you have found so far. But if you think that it is a little early to talk about this …

” Halimink interrupted me and he apologized in a simple way by saying, “We do not find your question funny, but in your World! I do not think that it takes more time to know the answer, and to realize how aimless you are; in addition to uselessly repeating the same mistakes every single day. As if it were already an automatic procedure.”

“So, please! Tell me what do you see wrong in my world?” I asked him.

“Your world lives in an ungoverned way,” Halimink replied. “For example, there is a carriage like this one that we are in; that is going nowhere, as if it were self-destructing with each step towards nothingness. Since we have left, I have noticed that wherever we go, that you constantly raise barriers between yourselves. You become separated from one another and you divide yourselves up, as if you were all in separate shoeboxes, some huddled one on top of the other, forming what you call buildings.”

 Kilehuem started to speak, amending his own reasoning by saying, “Yes, and these monsters standing next to one another are covering your horizons and they are blinding you to the life that exists beyond you. In your way of life, you no longer see your rivers, your trees and forests. So, belittling the notion that there is a whole world around you; but, what is even more curious is that you are increasing the number of these monsters that hide life. As if there was no other way out. You are imprisoning yourself.”  Kilehuem continued,

“I do not know what you do in these little shoe boxes that drives you desperately around as if on wheels. You run from one side to the other. Just for the purpose of arriving at other destinations; to repeat the same mistakes made the day before.”

“But how come Kilehuen? They are people working, going to their jobs,” I said.

“That is not what Kilehuem and I mean,” Halimink said. “What we are trying to show you is that you have created the idea that you live, you eat, you drink and that you are happy because of the existence of houses, cars, computers, and so on.  “You do not realize that everything that is true comes only from nature. There are thousands of people in these houses, in these buildings, and in these shoeboxes on wheels. They all eat, they drink, and they consume more and more things, to create life standards and happiness. However, there is no one planting a single tree, a single flower, or a single fruit. And everyone wants to eat, to drink, to dress, to work and they think that it is from working on their computers that they get to eat and to breathe. They are all lost because they do not see the true picture of what life really is about.”

“I’m liking your points. Please, go on!” I said. 

“While we were at the bus station,” Halimink said, “I saw people coming and going at all times. Most of them with these things in their hands. They did not look away from them for a second. They came together, they left together. Sometimes they even spoke to one another. But they did not even look at one another; much less at what was going on around them. It was as if they were imprisoned in a small screen opened at nothing.”

“You must be referring to cell phones, now connected to the internet. In fact, I agree that many people use them excessively,” I said.

“But it is not only that,” Halimink said “I have seen many children using the same equipment that you describe. They pass by flowers and gardens, without seeing the beauty of life. Most of them were shouting at their parents for food and they took money out from their pockets. When they have been fed, they immediately go their own way passing trees, plants and animals, but they continued looking at the equipment. They did not reflect that a small tree or a flower took months, years or even decades to grow and bear fruit. Everyone when they feel that their stomachs are aching with hunger, that want to satiate it immediately; and they take out of their pockets a small piece of paper gained through something from behind a screen full of buttons. They reached it through a small metal box on wheels, which led them to a  larger box. This one, heaped on top of a bunch of other boxes. Do you understand what I mean?”

“Perfectly Halimink, and you’re completely right,” I replied.

Kilehuem continued, “And I tell you more. If something happens in your world that makes them lose that piece of paper that they can buy everything with, what will they eat or drink? Who knows? Would they eat the little screen that they carry from one place to another? The little screen that they refer to all the time? Or maybe they would eat one of the wheels of the little boxes, that take them recklessly from one place to another? The truth is that you have lost the notion of what life is!”

“But, how can we reverse a chaotic situation like this?” I asked him. 

“I believe that it is difficult, but not impossible,” he said. “I also believe that none of you will be able to solve such a problem on your own, and that it will take a long time. It is likely to be a long and a painful process. The solution has to come through seeds that will be thrown to the ground, but most of these will die. Some will bear fruit, but not so sweet. Others, however, will germinate and give you beautiful, healthy fruits, which will fill your eyes with wonder. 

“Finally, I believe that you will suffer many disappointments and that you will often believe that all the work that you do will have been in vain. However, you should continue with it anyway, and work for this new sense of life, by realising that it is that sense of being for which you have been born.”

“We should take away the price of everything that exists in my world. And on to it, add a new label, containing true values.” I told them.

“Exactly!” Halimink said, looking at me and then at Kilehuen. We all shook our heads, as if we had finally understood our purpose. Having written a long agreement letter, that was finally signed with an intention to accomplish it.

∞

Video above is a message to the last Yagán, Mrs. Cristina Calderón, who inspired one the main characters of the book “21 Days at The End of The World“, also written by the author. It is a reflection about “What would it be like being the last one?”

REFLECTION

It is not easy to be in silence in the face of a dramatic situation like the one we are experiencing, leading millions of people to an almost absolute isolation. Isolation is very bad and in some cases can take us to collective depression, which would be as bad as the coronavirus pandemic itself.

It is terrible not being able to go out on the streets, not being able to go to the beach, visit friends or be visited by anyone, including your own family. But we must take into account that we may not have such a rich opportunity in our lives and that it provides us reflection and transformation, considering 03 main points:

What is life, what is wealth? Be aware that life was made just to live and not to chase the wind. What’s the advantage of having power, houses and cars and all kinds of wealth, in a situation like this. A virus does not choose our color, our money, our religion, our power. We are all at the mercy of something so small that it can only be seen through a microscope. Therefore, what is the advantage of having weapons, power or money. This situation is showing us that we are all equal, in the face of life or death.

About 500 years ago the explorers arrived in America and brought with them a series of diseases, including Flu and Measles. It is estimated that more than half of the American ancestral population was decimated in a few decades by diseases brought from other corners of the world. Adding the mistaken idea of submitting peoples to a higher form of life, the peoples who lived here were gradually suffocated and exterminated. I say that as a form of reflection in relation to the indigenous peoples who still live in a certain isolation in America, from North to South and who have suffered for centuries similar situations to what we are living in this very moment. Many issues have already evolved in the world, slavery, racial prejudice, homosexual prejudice. But the indigenous issue seems to be doomed to forgetting.

Joining what was said before, see this moment as an opportunity to look around us, see nature, animals and ourselves as beings belonging to a single world, a single life and that requires attention and respect above all. Spend more time with your dog or cat. Go to your backyard to play with it, or to the balcony of your apartment. Take Sun from your window. Contemplate it and feel it touching your skin. Close your eyes and notice the indescribable feeling of pleasure at being alive. Be grateful. Put in your sound that song you liked so much and that you haven’t heard in a long time. Remember what you did most when you were younger and which brought you the deepest and simplest fulfillment. Do it. Stretch yourself. Watch a good movie. Take the opportunity to get to know better who is by your side. And above all, take the opportunity to reflect that we have no power over almost anything in life. But that we can improve ourselves as human beings and make the world a better place to live.

∞