Chronicles From The Future: The amazing story of Paul Amadeus Dienach

Lately it seems that someone has cast the evil eye upon our group and two out of the four couples have split up. Axel and Juliet, who appeared even more in love than Stefan and Hilda, after a lot of whining and misunderstanding, decided to go their separate ways. Nobody knows what the exact causes of the separation were since nobody here talks about them. They were probably too young for a long-lasting commitment. After a short farewell party, in between sobs and laughter, she left, heading north. Shortly after, Axel left too. He first went to Sicily but was planning on leaving after two months’ time to continue his violin studies.

A week ago, Aria broke up with Eric with unexpected and remarkable determination and went to live with her folks in her second homeland, Norfor. This separation was seemingly sudden. For a long time it was obvious that their cohabitation and coexistence wouldn’t last long. They split up in a completely civilised manner and with a few clear words.

We went to see Eric on the first night after Aria left and we kept him company for hours. He felt sad that he couldn’t keep her and he said that he had always known that if they ever broke up it would be on her initiative, as it eventually happened. He accepted it, however, with a relaxed and slightly sad attitude and lack of cheerfulness.

“I wish I could have made her happier,” was his last sentence.

As for me, I was still staying at Stefan and Hilda’s and near them I was experiencing every day the one thing I had truly missed in my life: brotherly love.

Even if we had lost our two friendly couples, our meetings with our wider circle did not dwindle. Quite the opposite, in fact; the high temperature of the past few days made Stefan take a break from his morning occupation for a while and now he very often takes us on one-day trips to the swimming pools of Mendrisio, the flower gardens of Verbania, Lake Lugano, Bellinzona and other times to the coasts of the Italian Riviera, west of Genoa.

Now, as far as Silvia is concerned, she hadn’t come to our meetings in a long time. She said she wanted us to be alone when we met. Both Stefan and Hilda were now aware of what was happening and so, with tear-filled eyes, I confessed everything to them.

They were very happy for us and told me that we made a great couple. I told Stefan that we were planning on going to the Pyrenees for a few days and he whole-heartedly agreed that it was a good decision.

We then talked about how frequent an occurrence “love” was in their age and he told me that the majority doesn’t experience it more than once in a lifetime, or even never, on some rare occasions. I asked him if they consider love-making that isn’t a result of love as unethical. He replied that in no way do they consider it unethical, but it cannot be compared to the true union of love, which is a bit like the Lipvirch. During the old days, throughout the whole era of the Eldere, when the sense of the

Lipvirch was still non-existent, physical relationships were based solely on the attraction between the sexes and the assessment of character. But even back then, just like now, many changes of sexual partners weren’t applauded. Then they were more interested in liking the person; the tenderness and spiritual bond came after the natural attraction and appreciation for the human being, whereas here, during the last few centuries, the Valley of the Roses has been arguing–even if some of the Ilectors disagree–that abstinence, especially when it’s a conscious decision, increases spirituality, something reminiscent of the ascetic principles of our times.

Overall, they no longer see love as a battle in which the most cunning wins and the most naïve loses, but as an alliance between equals, without secrets or ulterior motives, an alliance that provides you with the necessary peace of mind to live your life.

“So your morality is only opposed to the very frequent changes of partners,” I remarked.

“Something like that. Too frequent changes are neither common nor applauded in our time. The balance always exists. But ethical issues aren’t always generated by these changes alone” Stefan replied.

He asked me how I would think of Juliet, for example, if now that she has broken up with Axel, she found a new love and went to live with him.

“I’m not referring to a couple of random instances,” I replied. “What would you think if you saw her spending her whole youth changing partners every six months?”