Far from the Center

I was living near the Center at the time, too busy in my private and professional life to pay much attention to those events and happenings around me that occupied front pages of the newspapers and leading stories on the radio and television.  One day I traveled to the Provinces where I knew a few people and where my high school friend was a well known personality.   When I arrived  there a festival was taking place, organized by my friend, and celebrating the historical achievements of the Center.

My friend introduced me to several people, organizers and performers at the festival, who viewed me with undeserved awe as a sort of unofficial  representative of the Center.  A young journalist from  the local newspaper interviewed me seeking my views of the festival. Needless to say, I was unprepared for and embarrassed by the attention I was receiving, but I figured I had to do my best to smile and play along.

At one point, I was sitting around a picnic table with several of my friend's acquaintances, sipping beer and shooting breeze, when I mentioned to the gathered people a story of a monk that was recently published in the Center.  One of the people, a bearded man of about 50,  immediately corrected me and added up-to-date information regarding this monk, information that I was unaware of.  I fell silent.  It turned out that this man was an expert on the matters of the Center, even published a weekly newsletter with the latest news and gossip from there. No one could compete.

It appears that the farther one dwells from the Center the more he becomes concerned about its affairs.