#438 Jerusalem- Neil Gaiman
Morrison wanted to go to Greece for vacation, but his wife
convinced him to go instead to Jerusalem to see the biblical sites. It had a
big effect on them.
“Jerusalem…was like a deep pool, where time had settled too
thickly. It had engulfed him, engulfed both of them, and he could feel the
pressure of time pushing him up and out. Like swimming down too deep.”
Their guide told them about Jerusalem Fever, a light
affliction that hits tourists at a pretty alarming rate. The weight of the
city’s history hits them so strong they wish to exist in the city as it was
thousands of years ago. They strip themselves of their modern clothes and don
bed sheets as togas and walk the city in a trance. This happened to Morrison’s
wife.
“Perhaps, he thought, it isn’t madness. Perhaps the cracks
are just deeper there, or the sky is thin enough that you can hear, when God
talks to his prophets. But nobody stops to listen any longer.”
The fever always subsides when taken out of the city, but
the memory has stuck with Morrison, and he wonders what it is like to feel that
strong an emotion to be struck with a faith so absolute.
“Sometimes he wondered what it had felt like inside her
head, that day, hearing the voice of God through the golden-colored stones, but
truly, he did not want to know. It was better not to.”
Maybe he should stop and listen.
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