The Never Ending Story​

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My former student, B (aged 5), told me one afternoon four years ago, that there is a story that never ends. “Really?", I responded, curious to know more, “How can that be?” B replied, “Yes, a story can never end, why did it just begin and then go on.” “Where does the ending go? How do we know where to stop?”, I asked B. “It doesn’t stop. There are no endings. Look.” B took a piece of paper and tore it lengthwise. He marked the top of the linear paper, “This is the beginning, where the story starts”. He moves down the length and makes more markings. “This is the middle where the problem comes. This is the middle where the solution also comes. And down here it's also middle, and middle and middle…”, B continued. He then paused suddenly, looking at the paper. “Oh wait, it needs to be joined here.” B took the ends of the paper and stapled them together. “Now you see, there is no end. It continues to the next and the next and the next. There is no beginning anymore, only middles” 

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B moved from making individual marks to making a continuous line as he turned the story in his hand. “This is the problem of the story, and the problem, and then resolution. Sometimes there is no problem, sometimes there is no resolution. It goes all around. I asked B, who he thought wrote the story and who found the resolutions. B replied, “I don’t know. Maybe all the characters. We are all characters in this story when we come inside. Then, we have to solve it. The story goes round and round. I don’t have enough paper to make it now. It is all connected but you need to find it. Sometimes you can’t see it, like here, see? In the middle here”, B pointed to the hole inside of the now circular paper, “is nothing”, he observed. “It just looks like nothing, but it’s not.” “What is nothing?”, I asked. B looked up and smiled, “It’s where the story goes.