But one humid Tuesday, as I walked past, he stood up. His knees cracked like dry kindling. He pointed a gnarled finger at me and barked, I stopped dead. "Sir?"

He grabbed a handful of sand from a nearby planter and let it slip through his fingers.

"The 'Original' truth—the one we all forget—is that the horizon is an illusion. You can walk toward it for a hundred years and never touch it. People spend their whole lives staring at the 'Full' version of their future, waiting for it to make sense, while the actual ground under their feet is covered in gold they’re too distracted to see."