Harold passed office workers, dog walkers, shoppers, children going to school, mothers and buggies, and hikers like himself, as well as several tourist parties. He met a tax inspector who was a Druid and had not worn a pair of shoes for ten years. He talked with a young woman on the trail of her real father, with a priest who confessed to tweeting during mass, as well as several people in training for a marathon, and an Italian man with a singing parrot. He spent an afternoon with a white witch from Glastonbury, and a homeless man who had drunk away his house, as well as four bikers looking for M5, and a mother of six who confided she had no idea life could be so solitary. Harold walked with these strangers and listened. He judged no one, although as the days wore on, and time and places began to melt, he couldn’t remember if the tax inspector wore no shoes or had a parrot on his shoulder. It no longer mattered. He had learned that it was the smallness of people that filled him with wonder and tenderness, and the loneliness of that too. The world was made up of people putting one foot in front of the other; and a life might appear ordinary simply because the person living it had done so for a long time. Harold could no longer pass a stranger without acknowledging the truth that everyone was the same, and also unique; and that this was the dilemma of being human. (p 180~181)

 

삶의 속성은 다양성이다. 우리는 누구나 다양한 방식으로 자신만의 삶을 살아간다. 언뜻 비슷해 보여도 자세히 보면 똑같은 삶이란 없다. 개별성, 단독성을 꽃피우는 토양은 바로 다양성인 것이다.

 

죽음의 속성은 단일성이다. 우리는 그 누구도 죽음을 피할 수 없다. 죽음의 이유나 방식은 삶 만큼이나 다양할 수 있겠지만 우리는 모두 죽는다는 단순한 진실 하나로 수렴된다.

 

삶의 다양성은 죽음의 단일성 앞에서 무력하다. 이는 우리 인간이 나이가 들어갈수록 그저 단순한 진실 이상의 절실한 실감으로 다가온다. 그럼에도 불구하고 우리는 삶을 멈출 수 없다. 죽음이 드리우는 공포와 고통 속에서도 우리는 삶이 던져주는 기쁨과 경이 속으로 발을 옮겨놓야야 한다. 이것이 바로 인간이라는 존재가 처한 숙명적 딜레마인 것이다.