Part V: A Spark

Superb prose extinguishes the wick of annihilation. Pithy observations culminate and the spark of wisdom returns. My mind calls upon the aphoristic survival mechanisms that bring doubt and anguish to its knees. Unique, dramatic dialogues challenge the ironies of uncertainty. Engaged in a mental fight, the Greeks resume their role of teacher, and Socrates, that sublime genius, leads this army of enigmatic forces back into battle. His genial dismissal marches me back to safety. Teaching goodness, deliberately inventing constructs that comically project magnificence at irony’s gate. Triumphing in a determined stance away from and back toward tradition that makes way for personal discernment. Reproached only if not held true by one’s own mind. 

Despite the commotion, a free, exuberant rhapsody is faintly heard in the background. Its aesthetic splendor is alive with power and beauty, truth and love. It zealously continues and recovers the thrill of living. Shakespearean quests, Homeric epics, tales of heroic proportion lead and recover me from ill health. I fall in love with love. Crying out against the exploiters of tragedy, aesthetic niceties reconcile discord, commentary fades, the poet and artist emerge. Charming, uniting, exploring, dwelling in both comedy and tragedy, never shaken by partial truths; all the while, willing to return to that stone cottage filled with a study of goodness. Paint splattered hither and thither. Athenian entertainment, aesthetic magnificence, startling freedom. Life is here and it belongs to the gods. Few mortals taste this curtailment of intellect. It is quiet. 

Between images and reality, dualism and distinction, idealism and ordinary reality, a childlike celebration contributes and is more equitable than the adult intellect. Previously duped by astonishingly wise and powerful myths of judgment, the softness of silk dresses new possibilities. A crown of imagination reigns. Purifying divinity, fluffy kittens, luminous exchanges eclipse what was once sharp and penetrating. Agony leaves. 

Laughter and music, bread, cheese and wine brought together under the auspices of free expression. The pursuit of wisdom is not explored here, it resides here. It is whole and radiant, a soft glimpse of possibility in an otherworldliness excellence. Complete in its form, faithful to its bliss, a prize that glorifies for any soul capable of knowing it. 

It simply is.