Today, information draws a clear line for the known world. It dictates, as if it proclaimed, “believe, and you shall gain eternity.” You may opt for “escape”, which is not seen as an act of cowardice or betrayal, but a desire for freedom between decrees.

For me, the unanticipated appeals greater than the expected.

One day, near the county borders between Yunlin and Jiayi (In southern Taiwan), and beyond the river’s embankment, a fishing net floating above the sea caught my attention.

It swept the tranquil surface, hovered mid-air for some time, and eventually plunged into the sea. My heart palpitated, solely for that fishing net.

After bouts of floating and the final dive, there were no signs of the net in sight, only a silent ocean left behind. Fresh was the moment of the encounter that’d just passed. I asked myself repeatedly, what state of mind this is?

Apparently, the fishing net appeared not as a “fishing net” I chose to escape the proclamation.

Freedom, it is merely so.