flâneur

Option Rot

terrain.com · 1,136 words · saved by 5 readers

Each fruit is a possibility, an option, a future you might one day grab

Imagine a tree. A great, sprawling fruit tree, its branches weighing heavy. Each fruit is a possibility, an option, a future you might one day grab. The tree is vast, its bounty endless. You stand beneath it, gazing up at the broad canopy, thinking: I am free. I am limitless. But here's the catch: the fruit is rotting. Not all at once, not in a dramatic collapse, but slowly, quietly, almost imperceptibly. The options are still there, still dangling, but they're softening, browning, losing their vitality. The illusion remains—until you reach up and realize the fruit is already past its prime. T

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