Observations in a Room [Short Story]

I looked around the room with perfect content. Many have said that I live a pretty strenuous life, but compared to everyone else in this classroom my life is actually quite easy.

I mean, just look at poor old Floor. He gets stampeded on by herds of students every day. Just to think of all the mud from the kids's boots... ick! I wish the students wouldn't drag me across Floor. I don't want to contribute anymore to his pain. I mean, I'm not that heavy. Just lift me up. 

I've often heard it said, "I wish I was in Fan's place - his life is a breeze". Pardon that, we're having a little too much pun. Ooooh! That was a bad one. I must be a glutton for Pun-ishment. Okay, but seriously, all he does all day is spin around and help people cool off. I guess I'm not a big fan of him (Last time, I promise). 

Wouldn't you get dizzy after a while, spinning your blades around all the time? Besides, he's not even an official part of the building like Floor or Ceiling, he's just someone that the teacher brought in because she thought the room was too hot in the summer time. He's kind of an outsider. I mean, we accept Fan as one of us, but he'll never enjoy the rich solidarity that comes from being a part of this school building from the very beginning like me.

I will confess, too, that I've often envied Ceiling. She looks down on everyone, all high and mighty. That gives her a sense of entitlement so she treats the rest of us like her peasants. Everyone here is disgusted with her egotism, and she knows it too, but she can get away with it. 

But then I reflected, "Well, if I envy Ceiling, that must be because I want to be ceiling, and if I want to be ceiling, doesn't that mean I want to be up on my high horse too? How does that make me any better than her?" I always said to myself that Ceiling's behavior is horrible, and that if I were in Ceiling's place I'd be the best Ceiling ever and wouldn't let power corrupt me. But would I really? Y'know what they say, absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

Then I thought that Ceiling must be really unhappy. I mean, if she is so spiteful to everyone all the time she must have a lot of hate built up inside. 

I thank my lucky stars every day that I'm not in as bad a place as my neighbor, Chair. Don't tell him I said that to his face - or any of the chairs, actually. They have heavy enough burdens to carry on there seats - y'know, with the weight of the kids and everything! And all those bums pressing against you all the time... Need I say more? 

So I'm actually very content with my place in this hierarchy. The only burden I really have to put up with is the weight of binders and books being put on me all the time. I swear, they get heavier every year. Just like the students! 

So I guess I lucked out in life by being a Desk. Surprised? Yeah, I know all you Humans think that your the top rung in the chain of being, but being a Desk comes with all kinds of perks. The best one is having lots of time to think - life's most subtle pleasure. I bet Ceiling, Chair, Fan, and even poor old Floor would enjoy their time a whole lot more if they contemplated as much as I did. 

"Well, I can contemplate stuff to!" you're probably saying to yourself, right? Well, you don't get to think as much as I do, because of the endless distractions you've put in your way. You might come across some deep truth or profound insight every now and again, but it only scratches the surface, it doesn't really "sink in" and become a part of your being. Instead, it just gets shoved aside by another barrage of thoughts - be they the product of your own chaotic mind or prompted by an equally chaotic environment. 

If you had as much time to think about how nothing in life lasts - not even for an instant - you wouldn't be attached to things nearly as often. You'd just go with the flow.

If you had time to think about how everyone (and everything, before you want to exclude me and my friends) wants to feel happiness and avoid suffering, you would never hurt a soul. If you did, you'd feel an unbearable guilt for days. 

Pitiful Human... life is too vast for you to comprehend it all in as brief a lifespan as you have, or in as speedy a life as you choose to live. It would take a lifetime of quiet reflection to understand it all. But maybe that's where your lucky.  There is a kind of thrill in the trial-and-error of lived experience, facing the adventures of life armed only with the little bit of wisdom you have. It is a thrill that I will never know. After all, I might be able to ponder a lot of wisdom, but I will never be able to practice it. 

In fact, if there is anything I truly dislike about being a stationary object, it;s that: not being able to put wisdom into practice. You humans are neither all-action like an animal nor all-thought like an object. You can apprehend wisdom and then practice wisdom. It is a rare and precious thing. 

Then again, practicing wisdom is something I have known only among the most extraordinary of your kind. Most of the people who have used this desk either think one way and act another, never think at all, or never act at all. What a wasted opportunity! 

But I'm completely over my days of thinking, "If I were a Human, I'd be better at it than you!". I understand that, for one reason or another, everyone has there place in life, and I accept mine wholeheartedly. Indeed, what else is there to ever do? We're all given our part to play in life, and whatever part you have you should play it wholeheartedly. That's my philosophy.