Jeanne-Lucienne Lagrange's Questionnaire

I say that I live in the city of Montreal, when asked to describe my home.

A simplistic answer, disregarding the multifaceted nature of what one would call a "home". No metropolis is a uniform monolith, in the end. Likewise, a "home" is not merely the site of our daily repose, and the physical form thereof.

... Let me start, with the story of a woman who sought to know all there was to know. Gathering fragments of integrity from the last corners of the world, she shaped them into a grand spire, overlooking the distant horizons. 

From there, she sighted a river, following it across the plains. She walked, gathering the fragments of ardor that were swept along the wayside, and adding them to her growing collection. Her journey was long, and with no sun nor moon, her one guidance was the strand of light she laid to guide her path onward.

Eventually, she reached a grand cathedral, each brick forged from reason, at the river's end. The spring was nowhere to be seen, although the strand of light led her to a sanctum at its heart. There, she rebuilt her spire looking upon the endless sky, from the fragments she had collected, and keep watch from aside.

That... was not my story. Not precisely.

Merely the echo of a distant dream.

A cathedral to reason still carries on the doctrines of the past, yet to be inscribed with the law of a new age. Yet, this is the one that I have known. For all of its flaws, I hold a measure of love for this city in which I live, and the university in which I research.

At the end, my domicile is merely secondary. The "place" where I spend my days, in the end, was never truly the place where I rested. The fragment of the city was but a fragment, and despite collecting records of the remainder this was the one that I could truly say I lived within.

Currently, I would consider myself fortunate enough to have sufficient financial stability, while accounting for the expenses of life within the heart of a metropolitan area. As has been recorded in erstwhile entries, nothing can be addressed sufficiently without a broadened perspective accounting for the myriad of interconnected factors influencing the situation, and this does not serve as an exception.

Disregarding all else, the compensation for serving as a librarian and researcher is surprisingly high. While I am more than aware that this is somewhat atypical, I have taken note of the fact that a not-insignificant portion was in the form of cost-of-living stipends.

It would be only natural to regard the irregularly-high expenses incurred by anyone wishing to have a reasonable commute to the establishment, and consider the effective income after addressing the irremediable expenses.

... Material resources still remain beyond my main concerns, though I have admittedly made use of some of my discretionary budget for maintaining a professional-looking wardrobe, in addition to the acquisition of a heavy-duty reinforced umbrella. The latter appears to serve quite well as a protection against hostile individuals in addition to the weather, although I do not enjoy actively seeking out conflict.

Even with the expectation for an increase in danger in my future, I would still consider the material secondary to the pursuit of knowledge. That taken into consideration, I certainly have been considering methods for supplementing what I have access to should I find it necessary in my path ahead.

Those of this modern day and age, I have once seen referred to as the 'children of Akasha'. At a glance, it is trivially apparent why one may call us by that appellation: in a world where almost all the world's knowledge is available freely to all, including the worlds once hidden from the gaze of the masses – this is no less than a reality where the light of knowledge shines upon each and every individual.

... If that is what you say.

The 'universal compendium' you speak of is but a record of a fractured skyline, resting upon a firmament of unknowns and redactions. The falsehoods mixed with truth, the recollections of a day yet to be, each and all.

I shall be the one to gather the broken pieces, and define the reason underpinning the inexplicable that nonetheless is everpresent yet sporadic.

Supposedly, they say that some things are forever unknowable. This is the one rule that underpins the myriad of phenomena that defy the rules of reality.

This, I shall deny.

"Let nothing be lost, from the records of eld to the realizations beyond the eternal future."

This shall be the law inscribed at the heart of my archive. This shall henceforth be the duty I continue to carry out, to bear the title of a 'daughter of Akasha' in truth.

And in doing so, I have not shattered will not shatter.