NOTHING.

One day I sank into the cozy armchair and I lost myself deeply in thought: Is it possible to write about nothing? Has anybody ever written about nothing? Is there any sense in picking up a pen and writing about nothing? Who is going to read such a piece of journalistic art?

First I thought that "nothing" was nothing important to write about. But then I realized that "nothing" played quite significant role in our lives. People quarrel about nothing. People are unhappy having nothing. They get crazy if they have nothing to do. And people even kill each other for nothing. You can't buy something for nothing. Sometimes you have to apologize for nothing because nothing for you is something for the others.

So is nothing something?

One evening I watched a dispute on TV between two individuals about a third one who had written a book. Although at the end of the show they both agreed that there was nothing to argue about, they had conversed. They talked about nothing! And it took half an hour for them to come to that conclusion! What's more, there were people, somewhere, at their homes, who watched and listened to that same nothing. And on the next day, they probably said to their friends: "There was nothing on TV last night!"

If you go to the doctor because you feel that something is wrong, let's say, with your throat, the doctor will give you a prescription. But he also will assure you that it is nothing to worry about. You bought a medicine and after you used all the pills, you realized that you had paid for nothing. But the doctor got your money for something. You see: your "nothing" was something to him! Why did he prescribe you a medicine? Because you knew nothing! Before the doctor became a doctor, he studied for a long time. He learned how to treat people, but he also learned how to change nothing to something.

People like to pay for nothing. They buy papers, magazines and... If they read them, they exercise their intelligence. But very often the written words are just bundled up and thrown on a curb to be recycled. There was nothing in those papers for non-readers, but the papers are something for those who pick them up and change them to, let's say, rolls of toilet paper. And then you can't say that those rolls of paper are nothing. You need them! The "nothing" changed itself to something again.

Once I visited my friends, who had beautiful trees in front of their house. They decided to cut them down because the trees blocked their

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