Some kind of synthesis (Stasiuk)

I've read thousands of books in my life. I've talked with hundreds of people, made friends with dozens of them; I've seen a lot of the world and been in various strange places. Out of all of this, you'd think some kind of synthesis would arise, some lesson for the future. Yet nothing of the sort has happened. I wake up each morning and wait for events to recede into the past. It's only then that they come into focus, only then that they acquire some meaning. The future is a big vacuum.

Andrzej Stasiuk, from "Memory"